So, the sun shining directly in my eyes at my desk, as it is wont to do around this time of year, got me thinking about how a truly terrible design idea like vertical blinds ever got so popular.
What are some other examples of ubiquitous bad design?
Chad Miller
Dec 9, 20 2:07 pm
Any design that doesn't meet any of the users needs.
SneakyPete
Dec 9, 20 2:13 pm
I always get triggered a bit when software designers decide they can do UI better than the OS team. I don't want to learn how to use the fucking "Save As" menu for the 400th time just because your merry team of jackasses decided windows needed something FRESH AND NEW.
thisisnotmyname
Dec 10, 20 9:02 am
the word "adobe" comes to mind
thatsthat
Dec 10, 20 9:59 am
looking at you, microsoft word.
square.
Dec 9, 20 2:19 pm
anything in/from new jersey
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 9, 20 4:16 pm
There's some good work around the Princeton area.
JonathanLivingston
Dec 9, 20 2:25 pm
There's always a reason and the road to hell is based on the best of intentions or something like that. My guess is vertical blinds came about in response to more traditional curtains? someone thought they obstructed the view less when opened maybe? There's always someone who thought it was a good idea.
Other bad design ideas:
Software contextual ribbons? I can't find anything anymore outside of the key commands and rhythm I already know. All the icons have changed too.
Paper handles on grocery bags? They always break and most people double bag stuff because of it.
Faux Shutters that are smaller than windows? Lots of bad style decisions out there like that.
Pocket doors.
tduds
Dec 10, 20 1:17 am
The only thing worse than handles on paper grocery bags is paper grocery bags with no handles.
citizen
Dec 9, 20 4:14 pm
I've been seeing a lot more houses with multiple big, fixed windows. In a warm climate, it's just so dumb. But for spec developers paying for construction but not eventual operations, it makes some kind of terrible sense.
caramelhighrise
Dec 17, 20 1:57 am
Sadly that mindset doesn't end at houses. I've worked on too many projects that the owner has a "not-my-problem" mentality. They don't want to pay for XYZ or lift a finger to make the project more successful, so we're instructed to cut corners and design a crappy project so they can shell out less money and sell it so it's someone else's (as well as our) problem to deal with in 5 years.
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 9, 20 4:17 pm
The US Constitution. The fact that we don't rewrite the document with each new generation, stupid as fuck.
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 9, 20 8:35 pm
"On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. They are masters too of their own persons, and consequently may govern them as they please. But persons and property make the sum of the objects of government. The constitution and the laws of their predecessors extinguished then in their natural course with those who[27] gave them being. This could preserve that being till it ceased to be itself, and no longer. Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19[28] years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.—It may be said that the succeeding generation exercising in fact the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the constitution or law had been expressly limited to 19[29] years only."
It would seem that some people hate the Founding Fathers...Tsk Tsk.
b3ta That letter is maybe my single favorite historical document. I end up re-reading it a few times a year. Such a perfectly concise argument against everything the very document he was pondering has become.
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 10, 20 6:48 am
I've only recently become familiar with this, it is good.
x-jla
Dec 10, 20 11:08 am
It is not good. You want some pimple faced 19 yo dipshit rewriting the 1st amendment? That would be a disaster
x-jla
Dec 10, 20 11:09 am
Jefferson was wrong on that one.
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 10, 20 12:05 pm
Nah. You're wrong, as always. Trust the people, except those who go off and die in wars, are legally allowed to vote.
You, are a mass of confusion.
Libertarian when it comes to corporate greed, but not when it comes to progress for the people, and their needs.
x-jla
Dec 10, 20 12:09 pm
The constitution is a document that limits the power or government. What would you like to rewrite?
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 10, 20 12:25 pm
It's fairly clear, that you've not read the document.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
I see the document as the will of the people, and decidedly how a free people want to govern themselves.
Government is people my friend. People are the government.
tduds
Dec 10, 20 12:52 pm
"You want some pimple faced 19 yo dipshit rewriting the 1st amendment?"
No one is suggesting this. No one is ever suggesting the ridiculous shit you invent to make your lazy arguments seem self-evident. It's annoying.
tduds
Dec 10, 20 1:14 pm
Whether the constitution is a permissive document or a restrictive document is a subject that's vexed legal scholors, justices, and lawmakers since day one. I doubt anyone on this forum is going to settle the matter.
SneakyPete
Dec 10, 20 1:29 pm
I could, but you guys don't deserve it. ;)
x-jla
Dec 11, 20 2:46 pm
“Government is people” yes, and we need a consistent document that guarantees individual rights and liberties so that the will of the majority doesn’t oppress the minority. The majority may rule, and we should have the ability to rewrite certain things, but there has to be a base of inalienable rights to work from. In other words, it should be additive, not reductive.
randomised
Dec 9, 20 4:46 pm
Have you tried closing the blinds?
atelier nobody
Dec 10, 20 1:09 pm
The operative word being "TRIED" - even when "fully closed" they're never actually closed and there's still sun in my face, hence bad design.
gibbost
Dec 9, 20 4:56 pm
I assume--like many things before it--the contractor installed horizontal blinds incorrectly and the avant-garde architect said 'i love it, let's keep it.' And a new fad began.
Rando is right. Closing them is like watching skeletons dance.
randomised
Dec 10, 20 6:01 am
That’s not what I meant, but agreed on the dancing
proto
Dec 9, 20 6:23 pm
i believe the only reason vert blinds are a thing is for sliding doors
why they get put on windows, I do not know
citizen
Dec 9, 20 7:26 pm
My home-office window faces west-southwest. Vertical works better in this orientation, though aesthetically I'd prefer horizontal.
caramelhighrise
Dec 17, 20 2:00 am
I'll have to ask my dad why he decided to use those on literally every window on the first floor of
their house. I kid you not.
mightyaa
Dec 9, 20 7:06 pm
Vertical blinds as someone has mentioned is great for sliders. I grew up in a contemporary 70's house with vertical blinds; think split shed roof lines, clearstories, vaulted ceilings, etc. Results in sloped head large windows that followed the 6:12 roofline. No other type of fully operable blind can be fitted to a sloped head (basically a triangle), particularly when the window grouping goes from about 10' to 18' and you can do it with one large blind assembly...like the window groupings below where they can be cut to fit oddball heads, even round, parabolic, etc. They have their place...
citizen
Dec 9, 20 7:30 pm
Nice images, mightyaa. (Though now I'm wondering in the top one why that concrete bench at lower left doesn't extend another three feet to become the base/ first two risers of the stair.)
randomised
Dec 11, 20 2:28 am
That was my first thought too about that bench!
sameolddoctor
Dec 9, 20 8:25 pm
Anything from Eric Owen Moss
tduds
Dec 10, 20 9:42 pm
You mean Wank Gehry?
midlander
Dec 9, 20 8:32 pm
elevator door lights that are too subtle about whether the incoming car is going up or down. elevator floor buttons located so far down i can't see or reach the low floors without bending awkwardly (i'm 5'9"). the weird way elevator buttons are often arranged to count up horizontally.
subway stations where the platform has no indication which way to go to get to the nearest stairs / escalators/ elevator.
the men's room in the old wing of my office building, which opens directly to the corridor facing the elevators so you always know who's taking a piss as you arrive in the morning. the operable vent panels in the new wing which have handles located approximately 5'10" above floor level in order to be nicely centered on the panel.
apscoradiales
Dec 9, 20 9:17 pm
- sliding glass windows
- single glazed windows
- inability to wash your own windows on second floor and above
- carpets on the floor
- carpets in the washroom
- windows above a tub in a washroom
- slippery tubs
- black faucets
- small kitchen sinks
- small washroom sinks
- small hot water tanks
- roof atttics with insufficient ventilation
- too small of air conditionings
- heating/ac ducts
- bad lighting
- not enough electrical circuits for all the switches and receptacles
- windows that don't open in office buildings
- floor bases that are too high
- dark kitchen cabinets
- inadequate sized washroom exhaust fans
- inadequate sized kitchen exhaust fans
- stoves with old-fashioned circular burners
- vertical window blinds
- horizontal window blinds
- cheap, hollow core wood/vinyl doors
- storm doors
- car sheds found in quebec
- exterior building lights that shine into your bedroom while you're trying to sleep
- people who don't take of their lawns
- many people, just in general
- ....................
Chad Miller
Dec 10, 20 1:40 pm
You forgot 'get off my lawn' you old ninny.
Le Courvoisier
Dec 10, 20 10:12 am
It’s all Patrik Schumacher’s fault.
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 10, 20 10:18 am
Always
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 10, 20 8:14 pm
All this talk about bad design, I want to share with you, Golden Design Ideas;
My pelvis will need some work, but I know I'll love them.
citizen
Dec 10, 20 8:50 pm
I only wish I had more thumbs to turn upward, b3ta.
These can't be real, can they? If so, sign me up! (Don't call them "pants"-- unless you can stop laughing long enough to get the oxygen. So "mants," maybe?)
And those two little belts are my favorite part, I think. Unless it's the full-height zipper starting up at the sternum. Too much material-- literally and figuratively.
b3tadine[sutures]
Dec 10, 20 9:00 pm
I just want to know how the marketing went!
randomised
Dec 11, 20 9:28 am
Those trouser legs are all you need if you have a long trench coat...
Non Sequitur
Dec 11, 20 9:32 am
these are fantastic
citizen
Dec 11, 20 2:08 pm
It worries me that you know this, Rando.
randomised
Dec 11, 20 3:36 pm
I’m just very practical
citizen
Dec 11, 20 3:57 pm
You'll save a fortune in neckwear with those high-waisters, fellas...
proto
Dec 11, 20 4:53 pm
are these real? I'll take one of each...!
[eta]shoot, just good PS skilz
Chuck71
Dec 11, 20 6:48 am
Not so much design, as process, where the design is done by multiple different teams who don't talk to each other, and one of the teams is either students or recent graduates with no experience producing the documentation.
Expect bad design everywhere, like steps to a lift lobby from a public space, that would need to be used by the disabled, where going the other way is also an escape route and it's a 200mm high single step at the door.
Or bollard lights along a stair case, on the stairs themselves (I shit you not), or similarly bollard lights along a wheelchair ramp.
'Sort it out on site' doesn't work because the main contractor wants a design drawing, but the site architect won't deal with problems created before he was given the shit design so he won't change anything himself or challenge this attitude as he himself is covered by referring to said shit design not being his problem.
The client whose main experience is building supermarkets thinks everything is fine as long as the contractor says it is.
What can possibly go wrong with this number of useless people making bad decisions because they can refer to someone else being responsible, if not accountable, for solving it?
I'm thinking of an endless circle of people pointing to each other as being to blame...
x-jla
Dec 11, 20 2:49 pm
the Dyson ball. My wife paid 400$ for this pos. It looks like it can go to mars and collect rock samples, but it doesn’t even pick up fuzz.
The coat closet doesn't even have a door. What the fuck combination of "We don't have a budget, we need to VE." and "We love contact paper." is this?
Everyday Architect
Dec 14, 20 12:33 pm
Portland gonna be Portland.
You just legalized psychedelics ... I feel like they could back it off a touch.
tduds
Dec 14, 20 12:39 pm
Sneaky: That's condo development for ya!
The developer skimped on the doors, the owner went bananas for texture.
Everyday Architect
Dec 14, 20 12:47 pm
"Our design concept is [gestures to invisible lettering in the sky] 'Keep Portland Weird'" ... how many times do you think this comes up in a regular week for developers in Portland?
tduds
Dec 14, 20 12:50 pm
I've yet to encounter it. Thankfully.
tduds
Dec 14, 20 12:51 pm
Every developer's concept is "Make our money back" and every architect in Portland is about 10-20 years past "Keep Portland Weird" as a positive thing.
SneakyPete
Dec 14, 20 1:07 pm
There are so many great ways to do weird. This ain't it.
Everyday Architect
Dec 14, 20 1:23 pm
tduds, I'm glad to hear that. In school, we commonly had studios with projects to be located in Portland and just about every design concept was "Keep Portland Weird."
It. was. exhausting.
It's also what happens when you take a group of out-of-town architecture students and give them a weekend in Portland to come up with a concept.
tduds
Dec 14, 20 1:27 pm
I have a whole essay about why I hate "Keep Portland Weird" that I started outlining a couple years ago but I got sidetracked and it's been languishing in my drafts.
SneakyPete
Dec 14, 20 1:32 pm
It's always frustrating when people take an observation drawn from history and observation and then use it as a rule.
"My coffee is hot."
"Keep coffee hot."
"WHY IS MY COFFEE NOT HOT, DID IT NOT READ THE SLOGAN?!"
proto
Dec 14, 20 2:11 pm
wallpaper
WALLPAPER!!!
Donna Sink
Dec 17, 20 11:43 am
LED lights are aesthetically bad, in every application. But they're ecologically good, so they should be ubiquitous. It just means we're all gonna look ugly from here forward.
JonathanLivingston
Dec 17, 20 11:52 am
I think it is just that the technology is in its infancy. They have been getting better quickly and many now support RGB control and the ability to regulate color temperature. The problem is your average consumer doesn't and end up with a mix of temperatures and don't think about it. With greater control comes greater responsibility or something like that.
So, the sun shining directly in my eyes at my desk, as it is wont to do around this time of year, got me thinking about how a truly terrible design idea like vertical blinds ever got so popular.
What are some other examples of ubiquitous bad design?
Any design that doesn't meet any of the users needs.
I always get triggered a bit when software designers decide they can do UI better than the OS team. I don't want to learn how to use the fucking "Save As" menu for the 400th time just because your merry team of jackasses decided windows needed something FRESH AND NEW.
the word "adobe" comes to mind
looking at you, microsoft word.
anything in/from new jersey
There's some good work around the Princeton area.
There's always a reason and the road to hell is based on the best of intentions or something like that. My guess is vertical blinds came about in response to more traditional curtains? someone thought they obstructed the view less when opened maybe? There's always someone who thought it was a good idea.
Other bad design ideas:
Software contextual ribbons? I can't find anything anymore outside of the key commands and rhythm I already know. All the icons have changed too.
Paper handles on grocery bags? They always break and most people double bag stuff because of it.
Faux Shutters that are smaller than windows? Lots of bad style decisions out there like that.
Pocket doors.
The only thing worse than handles on paper grocery bags is paper grocery bags with no handles.
I've been seeing a lot more houses with multiple big, fixed windows. In a warm climate, it's just so dumb. But for spec developers paying for construction but not eventual operations, it makes some kind of terrible sense.
Sadly that mindset doesn't end at houses. I've worked on too many projects that the owner has a "not-my-problem" mentality. They don't want to pay for XYZ or lift a finger to make the project more successful, so we're instructed to cut corners and design a crappy project so they can shell out less money and sell it so it's someone else's (as well as our) problem to deal with in 5 years.
The US Constitution. The fact that we don't rewrite the document with each new generation, stupid as fuck.
"On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. They are masters too of their own persons, and consequently may govern them as they please. But persons and property make the sum of the objects of government. The constitution and the laws of their predecessors extinguished then in their natural course with those who[27] gave them being. This could preserve that being till it ceased to be itself, and no longer. Every constitution then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19[28] years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.—It may be said that the succeeding generation exercising in fact the power of repeal, this leaves them as free as if the constitution or law had been expressly limited to 19[29] years only."
It would seem that some people hate the Founding Fathers...Tsk Tsk.
Sad.
b3ta That letter is maybe my single favorite historical document. I end up re-reading it a few times a year. Such a perfectly concise argument against everything the very document he was pondering has become.
I've only recently become familiar with this, it is good.
It is not good. You want some pimple faced 19 yo dipshit rewriting the 1st amendment? That would be a disaster
Jefferson was wrong on that one.
Nah. You're wrong, as always. Trust the people, except those who go off and die in wars, are legally allowed to vote.
You, are a mass of confusion.
Libertarian when it comes to corporate greed, but not when it comes to progress for the people, and their needs.
The constitution is a document that limits the power or government. What would you like to rewrite?
It's fairly clear, that you've not read the document.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
I see the document as the will of the people, and decidedly how a free people want to govern themselves.
Government is people my friend. People are the government.
"You want some pimple faced 19 yo dipshit rewriting the 1st amendment?"
No one is suggesting this. No one is ever suggesting the ridiculous shit you invent to make your lazy arguments seem self-evident. It's annoying.
Whether the constitution is a permissive document or a restrictive document is a subject that's vexed legal scholors, justices, and lawmakers since day one. I doubt anyone on this forum is going to settle the matter.
I could, but you guys don't deserve it. ;)
“Government is people” yes, and we need a consistent document that guarantees individual rights and liberties so that the will of the majority doesn’t oppress the minority. The majority may rule, and we should have the ability to rewrite certain things, but there has to be a base of inalienable rights to work from. In other words, it should be additive, not reductive.
Have you tried closing the blinds?
The operative word being "TRIED" - even when "fully closed" they're never actually closed and there's still sun in my face, hence bad design.
I assume--like many things before it--the contractor installed horizontal blinds incorrectly and the avant-garde architect said 'i love it, let's keep it.' And a new fad began.
Rando is right. Closing them is like watching skeletons dance.
That’s not what I meant, but agreed on the dancing
i believe the only reason vert blinds are a thing is for sliding doors
why they get put on windows, I do not know
My home-office window faces west-southwest. Vertical works better in this orientation, though aesthetically I'd prefer horizontal.
I'll have to ask my dad why he decided to use those on literally every window on the first floor of
their house. I kid you not.
Vertical blinds as someone has mentioned is great for sliders. I grew up in a contemporary 70's house with vertical blinds; think split shed roof lines, clearstories, vaulted ceilings, etc. Results in sloped head large windows that followed the 6:12 roofline. No other type of fully operable blind can be fitted to a sloped head (basically a triangle), particularly when the window grouping goes from about 10' to 18' and you can do it with one large blind assembly...like the window groupings below where they can be cut to fit oddball heads, even round, parabolic, etc. They have their place...
Nice images, mightyaa. (Though now I'm wondering in the top one why that concrete bench at lower left doesn't extend another three feet to become the base/ first two risers of the stair.)
That was my first thought too about that bench!
Anything from Eric Owen Moss
You mean Wank Gehry?
elevator door lights that are too subtle about whether the incoming car is going up or down. elevator floor buttons located so far down i can't see or reach the low floors without bending awkwardly (i'm 5'9"). the weird way elevator buttons are often arranged to count up horizontally.
subway stations where the platform has no indication which way to go to get to the nearest stairs / escalators/ elevator.
the men's room in the old wing of my office building, which opens directly to the corridor facing the elevators so you always know who's taking a piss as you arrive in the morning. the operable vent panels in the new wing which have handles located approximately 5'10" above floor level in order to be nicely centered on the panel.
- sliding glass windows
- single glazed windows
- inability to wash your own windows on second floor and above
- carpets on the floor
- carpets in the washroom
- windows above a tub in a washroom
- slippery tubs
- black faucets
- small kitchen sinks
- small washroom sinks
- small hot water tanks
- roof atttics with insufficient ventilation
- too small of air conditionings
- heating/ac ducts
- bad lighting
- not enough electrical circuits for all the switches and receptacles
- windows that don't open in office buildings
- floor bases that are too high
- dark kitchen cabinets
- inadequate sized washroom exhaust fans
- inadequate sized kitchen exhaust fans
- stoves with old-fashioned circular burners
- vertical window blinds
- horizontal window blinds
- cheap, hollow core wood/vinyl doors
- storm doors
- car sheds found in quebec
- exterior building lights that shine into your bedroom while you're trying to sleep
- people who don't take of their lawns
- many people, just in general
- ....................
You forgot 'get off my lawn' you old ninny.
It’s all Patrik Schumacher’s fault.
Always
All this talk about bad design, I want to share with you, Golden Design Ideas;
My pelvis will need some work, but I know I'll love them.
I only wish I had more thumbs to turn upward, b3ta.
These can't be real, can they? If so, sign me up! (Don't call them "pants"-- unless you can stop laughing long enough to get the oxygen. So "mants," maybe?)
And those two little belts are my favorite part, I think. Unless it's the full-height zipper starting up at the sternum. Too much material-- literally and figuratively.
I just want to know how the marketing went!
Those trouser legs are all you need if you have a long trench coat...
these are fantastic
It worries me that you know this, Rando.
I’m just very practical
You'll save a fortune in neckwear with those high-waisters, fellas...
are these real? I'll take one of each...!
[eta]shoot, just good PS skilz
Not so much design, as process, where the design is done by multiple different teams who don't talk to each other, and one of the teams is either students or recent graduates with no experience producing the documentation.
Expect bad design everywhere, like steps to a lift lobby from a public space, that would need to be used by the disabled, where going the other way is also an escape route and it's a 200mm high single step at the door.
Or bollard lights along a stair case, on the stairs themselves (I shit you not), or similarly bollard lights along a wheelchair ramp.
'Sort it out on site' doesn't work because the main contractor wants a design drawing, but the site architect won't deal with problems created before he was given the shit design so he won't change anything himself or challenge this attitude as he himself is covered by referring to said shit design not being his problem.
The client whose main experience is building supermarkets thinks everything is fine as long as the contractor says it is.
What can possibly go wrong with this number of useless people making bad decisions because they can refer to someone else being responsible, if not accountable, for solving it?
I'm thinking of an endless circle of people pointing to each other as being to blame...
the Dyson ball. My wife paid 400$ for this pos. It looks like it can go to mars and collect rock samples, but it doesn’t even pick up fuzz.
Happy Monday.
https://www.redfin.com/OR/Port...
Wait.
The coat closet doesn't even have a door. What the fuck combination of "We don't have a budget, we need to VE." and "We love contact paper." is this?
Portland gonna be Portland.
You just legalized psychedelics ... I feel like they could back it off a touch.
Sneaky: That's condo development for ya! The developer skimped on the doors, the owner went bananas for texture.
"Our design concept is [gestures to invisible lettering in the sky] 'Keep Portland Weird'" ... how many times do you think this comes up in a regular week for developers in Portland?
I've yet to encounter it. Thankfully.
Every developer's concept is "Make our money back" and every architect in Portland is about 10-20 years past "Keep Portland Weird" as a positive thing.
There are so many great ways to do weird. This ain't it.
tduds, I'm glad to hear that. In school, we commonly had studios with projects to be located in Portland and just about every design concept was "Keep Portland Weird."
It. was. exhausting.
It's also what happens when you take a group of out-of-town architecture students and give them a weekend in Portland to come up with a concept.
I have a whole essay about why I hate "Keep Portland Weird" that I started outlining a couple years ago but I got sidetracked and it's been languishing in my drafts.
It's always frustrating when people take an observation drawn from history and observation and then use it as a rule.
"My coffee is hot."
"Keep coffee hot."
"WHY IS MY COFFEE NOT HOT, DID IT NOT READ THE SLOGAN?!"
wallpaper
WALLPAPER!!!
LED lights are aesthetically bad, in every application. But they're ecologically good, so they should be ubiquitous. It just means we're all gonna look ugly from here forward.
I think it is just that the technology is in its infancy. They have been getting better quickly and many now support RGB control and the ability to regulate color temperature. The problem is your average consumer doesn't and end up with a mix of temperatures and don't think about it. With greater control comes greater responsibility or something like that.