Assignment 0 – Bad Design!

I was initially stumped when I had to think of something that’s badly designed. Mr Reddy mentioned that good designs are rare and bad designs are everywhere (thereby implying that this assignment will be a cinch), well I have to “disagree” to a certain extent.

While it is true that bad designs are pervasive (unfortunately), I finally realised why I was stumped initially. We tend to assimilate bad design into our life, choosing to work WITH bad design (or work around bad design, depending on how you look at it) instead of getting well designed stuff to work for us.

Without further delays, here are some examples of bad design I picked out. They are specific to my day-to-day life, stuff that I come into contact almost daily.

Badly designed stuff that I have habitually ignored.

Sample 1

Lift buttons at the central forum.

User reaction

I believe most people have come into contact with them at one point or another. The buttons for closing and opening the elevators doors meet with two extreme kind of treatment daily. They either get jabbed rapidly in quick sucessions or get ignored entirely.

The flaws in these buttons lie in the absence of backlight, long action-reaction time and low level of affordance. Most lift buttons when pushed, lights up to show user that they are…. depressed. The back light works hand in hand with a bouncy spring mechanism that has a reaction force to the pushing action of the finger.

Both of which are missing in the case of the central forum elevators. To top it off, the lift doors takes extremely long to respond to the lift buttons. So much so that I question if the buttons work at all, is the door slow to react? Or is it closing automatically after a predetermined time lapse?

I notice that some of us simply ignore the buttons. Choosing instead to hit the buttons for whichever floor they are heading to and then WAIT for the doors to close.

Lessons learnt through interaction

Erm… For every force exerted there is an equal opposing force working in the opposite direction?

Just kidding. The solution to this design problem is quite simple. Just change the buttons panel!

Oh! Oh! While you’re at it, maybe you can change the lift too! A brand new, larger, airier and faster elevator would go really well with the brand new buttons panel. (:

My reflections

Mr Reddy mentioned that the surroundings under which the user uses a product has a pivotal role in determining if that experience is a pleasant or unpleasant one. Here we have badly designed lift buttons, a small stuffy lift that experiences high traffic volume…

Change it already!

Sample 2

These door knobs/handles are found along the corridor at AS1.

As seen from inside the classroom.

Recess in wall

User reaction

The door knob/handle has a simple and extremely efficient mechanism behind it. Turning the handle clockwise (aka pushing the handle down) from the outside translates into the metal knob jamming itself into a recess in the door frame, locking the door in the process.

Lessons learnt through interaction

Here lies the problem, the clockwise/downward motion on the handle for most people is associated with opening doors. In the above designed handle, a clockwise/downward motion will lock the door instead of opening them.

My reflections

While many first time users struggle to work the handle. Credit must be given duly. It is made from a hardy material. It has minimal small, moving parts and therefore is able to withstand daily abuse. Attributes that most possibly got it installed in the first place.

It would be perfect if the designers had kept in mind the common behaviour/usage patterns of consumers. Perhaps in this case, flipping the metal knob so that it rests on top would resolve this issue.

And now, presenting the final example of bad design….

Haha. Just playing. See y’all in class!