What is the worst piece of design you have used, seen or even designed yourself... This could be a long list but may I suggest: 1. The USB connector. Have you ever put one in right on the first try? 2. Philippe Starck, the Juicy Salif (I have one) 3. And of course Bat Bombs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb) The last one could be the start of a 'daft design' thread I suppose ;-) Over to you...
Good thread. This bad boy could have been designed better: They just needed to make those watertight compartments actually watertight and they woudn't have got into such a mess.
This thing - The Dyson Airblade: If it wasn't so annoyingly overhyped as a "brilliant" invention it probably wouldn't bother me so much, but I think it a pretty bad piece of design for the following reasons. 1) Un-ergonomic: I don't find putting my hands in vertically particularly helpful/comfortable/satisfactory. Also, the height it's installed at dictates who can actually use it. If you're a tiny bit too short you're completely screwed because you can't get your hands in. 2) Easy for cuffs to touch the thing during the drying process 4) Easy for hands to accidentally touch the rubber seals during drying. 3) Always a filthy pool of grot in the bottom of the thing. Yuk. 5) Doesn't dry my hands in 10s satisfactorily. 6) Probably dubious "green" credentials. 7) Other manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon and are copying the bloody thing's form factor - this style of dryer seems to be everywhere now. 8) When it's constantly in use the air's too too hot, but when they're not constantly in use the air is too cold. This is a proper hand dryer, by the way: The Xlerator: Now don't get me started on the bagless vacuum cleaners....
I must disagree I love the Airblade. The only hand dryer that actually dries your hands. Most electric driers I come across are so poor it's more effective to blow on them. Bad invention? Those wash basin taps you have to push in that turn off as soon as you put your hand under them.
It shouldn't have been sold as unsinkable in the first place. Human arrogance killed hundreds. Secondly, not enough lifeboats. Very bad attitude, no preparation (it was unsinkable) made this the disaster that it was. I still get the shivers thinking about what these poor souls went through that dark, freezing night.
Was it really sold as "unsinkable", or did the press of the day sensationalise the perceived enhanced "unsinkability" features for jingoistic reasons? To be fair, compartmentalising the hull reduced the risk considerably, but unless there was zero risk there was no excuse for insufficient lifeboats. What was the point in fitting lifeboats at all if there was zero risk of it sinking? Were the number of lifeboats proportional to the risk? It didn't proportionally sink, did it?
In my opinion, the Comet 1 is other example of an mechanical design work with huge problems, being a classical example of fatigue failure. It was proposed about 60 modifications to the initial project.
Ha ha, totally agree 100%!! I watched a tv program the other day and an actor was using it to dry his hands while talking to another actor. He was moving his hands up and down in a rapid motion. This is a good example to add to your list in the the fact that the way you are supposed to use it is too complicated for the average Joe Blogg drying his hands. My personal use has seen me have a go at least 2-3 times to get my hands pretty much dry and you have to concertrate not to touch the rubber sides. And yes, the Xlerator is the best I've seen on the market sofar with second place going to the Airforce a bit further behind.
I think Dyson is going to crop up a few times here. DYSON BALL. The explanation of this design is that the convensional 4 wheel hoovers dont have good manoeuvrability. No hoover has 4 wheels, they commonly have 2 wheels and a roller and move around corners well. http://www.dyson.co.uk/technology/balltechnology.asp DYSONS solution for this is a massive ball which allows you to sweep around corners with ease... which is completely impractical unless you have wavey hallways and curved walls. Silly design and unnesesarry innovation.
