THE TRUTH ABOUT: Weird funny design | History Defined

When Bored Panda reached out to Crappy Design's community to learn a bit more about the community, one of its moderators said "the original motivation for the subreddit was to point out [bad] designs. Nowadays, most subscribers probably come here for entertainment. However, it is common to have a meaningful discussion here on why or why not something is crappy design."

The subreddit was created back in 2011 and it currently has over 2.5 million members. On Reddit, that's a lot.

Akshayta Rao writes that we all intuitively notice badly designed items but find it difficult to explain why good designs are, well, good. According to her, a well-known example of bad design would be USB cables. And it's hard to argue with her—we’ve all tried plugging them in the wrong way more than once. Some of us maybe even hundreds of times.

The Interaction Design Foundation explains that bad designs are overloaded with information and force the user to do more work than is necessary.

According to a spokesperson of BeraTek Industries, a company with expertise in design, prototyping, and manufacturing, there are 5 characteristics that (in their opinion) define a bad product design.

The design is not self-explanatory. "Of all things a design could do wrong, this is possibly the worst," the BeraTek Industries representative writes.

"Customers should be able to, fairly quickly, determine what the product is and does and how to use it. Long instruction manuals are necessary from a technical standpoint, but a product should strive to be as intuitive as possible. Some products are designed with too many unnecessary features which detract from the product’s primary use and user-friendliness. If a product is not self-explanatory enough, it will do more harm than good in the consumer’s eye."

The design is distracting. Yes, a captivating design is always a good thing, but there is a difference between captivating and distracting. "A distracting design tries too hard to capture the user’s eye. Instead of seamlessly integrating itself into the user’s life, it is constantly calling out for attention through obnoxious aesthetics or arbitrary functionality. The designs which pleasantly impact consumers subconsciously are generally better than those which impact consciously," the spokesperson explains.

The design is difficult to use. This characteristic differentiates from the first one in that it may be an intuitive product, but the actual act of using it is difficult.

"The coffee mug in the accompanying photo has a small 'handle' that not only looks nearly impossible to grip comfortably, but also has a groove which allows hot coffee to flow freely towards your fingers. Ergonomics is a key factor in well-designed products. If a user cannot physically connect with a product in a satisfying manner, that product is a bad design."

The design is forgettable. "How often do you use badly designed products? Probably not very often because that product has been sitting in the back of your closet since you got it," the BeraTek Industries representative says. "Whether it be poor aesthetics or mediocre performance, thousands of products fall into the same forgettable trap. Instead of being a product that is useful or enjoyable to use, these products are so bland or useless that they leave no psychological impression on the user. Product design heavily relies on psychology, and the connection humans have with objects."

"To leave no psychological impression at all is to almost not even exist."

The design is short-lived. Industry professionals measure a design's quality not only by aesthetics and usefulness but also by its lifespan.

"A bad design will have faults which render it useless quicker than a consumer would like. Many companies will purposely design products this way through planned obsolescence, however, I believe this is the wrong way to approach product design. My favorite products to use are ones that I have inherited from family or have been in my possession for years and still perform as well as when they were first bought. I believe the best products are those which can be used for a lifetime."

No design is perfect. But some are obviously crappier than others.