Tuesday, July 01, 2014

The art of not so good design

I have a waste basket, with a lid. Cost three euro's, so what can you say. Still, someone has spent some time to design the thing, and, hopefully, test the prototypes. Or not. The lid hangs from the middle, it's bent so its center of gravity is below the hinges and it automatically shuts. Unless you throw something in, then the lid goes past its balance point and stays open.

Dear waste basked designer, how hard is it to test a prototype of your waste basked by throwing in a piece of paper? How hard is it to keep looking at the lid until you notice it doesn't close by itself? How hard is it to change the shape by just half an inch to make sure it always closes?
You may say "how hard is it to bend over and close the lid yourself?". But it's not about that. Every morning I bend over and close the lid. The issue is that you designed it so I wouldn't have to close it myself, and you failed.

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