Design of Everyday Things: Five Well-Designed and Five Poorly Designed Devices

Well Designed Products

Lamp power switch

This old lamp sitting in my desk has one of the better power switches that I find in lamps of this kind. The knob is simple and easy to spot, with no way to get it confused for any other function. The knob has small ridges on the side that allows the user to comfortable grip the knob and turn it reliably. But by far the most important "feature" of this knob is the fact that turning it in the wrong way gives very particular feedback.

If the user turns the knob the wrong way, it's immediately apparent that it's not the correct way. The knob awkwardly begins to rise in height and quickly snaps back down the bottom, as it's being turned against its intended function. The "correct" way, on the other hand, turns smoothly and the knobs gives a tactile and audio feedback as it clicks in an obvious manner.

Super Nintendo

Sometime last year my brain decided I wasn't wasting enough of my money and I decided to purchase a Super Nintendo online. I never really "forgot" how it functioned or looked like, but seeing it physically again after several years gave let me refresh my memory on some of the finer details which I think are the result of an extremely well designed machine.

Focusing on the design of the console itself, this version of the Super Nintendo has the three main functions of the device on the top: the Power slider, the Eject button, and the Reset slider. The Power button slides into exactly two states and stays put on each state, with a small LED light on the front of the console indicating that the machine is receiving power. The slider makes a relatively loud clicking noise as well, giving clear feedback as to when the machine has been switched to the "ON" and "OFF" stages. The reset slider, though similar in appearance, operates differently. This slider does not have two discrete states but rather one single "action" that is invoked upon sliding it upward. Releasing the slider has a spring put it back to its resting position, such that there's no way that the slider could normally be "stuck" in the Reset position. Finally, the Eject button is a long button that requires a relatively firm, deliberate press to eject the cartridge, preventing any cartridges from being accidentally ejecting when either of the other two buttons were intended to be used.

The controller itself also exhibits a similarly well-thought out design process. The face buttons on the right are divided into two pairs, one concave set and one convex, with two ovals in the face of the controller clearly and visually grouping the two sets together. The concave and convex structure of the buttons gives tactile feedback to the user to be able to make some differentiation between the button without actually having to look down on it for verification.

Silent Timer

These silent timers have a simple but dedicated use and contain two buttons, clearly labeled, that perform exactly in the way that they would be expected to.

The main reason why I chose this particular timer is the fact that the buttons are well enough built and spaced apart such that there it would be extremely difficult to press both the minute and the second button at once, which would result in the resetting of the timer as per the label on the bottom. Each of the buttons can be firmly and cleanly pressed, and while there's no audio feedback due to the nature of the timer itself, it's really easy to differentiate when the button was pressed and when it was not.

Car Key Safeguard

The vast majority of the cars, including my own, contain a safeguard mechanism that does not allow the keys to be removed from the vehicle without first placing it in the Park position. This essentially prevents any keys from being removed in any position that would result in the car moving, which is used for both an anti-theft solution as well as a safety issue.

Other safeguard mechanics involve using a chip inside the keys that are used to verify that the keys are authentic and not a lookalike clone. Once again, this is used as an anti-theft solution, which I find to be a very well designed one given the fact that the user does not have to make any behavioral or observational changes when operating the vehicle's keys. This comes with the downside of not being able to make duplicates of the keys easily while retaining all of its functionality, although the added security can easily outweigh the inconvenience.

Logitech Optical Mouse G400

Computer mice might be the one of the most common devices these days, but there are still plenty of instances in which mice are poorly designed in both function and form. This particular serves as an example of a well designed mouse in terms of cost, performance, and usability. At a relatively low price point, this particular mouse packs a much higher DPI than most other conventional USB mice, and contains two extra buttons on the side for easier browsing as well as additional functionality in applications. Further, two buttons above and below the wheel control the precision of the mouse on the fly, meaning that the user can make the mouse faster (albeit less accurate) or slower simply by pressing the mouse up or down. The wheel itself is also silent, comfortable to turn, and has discrete, easy to distinguish shifts in position indicating that a scroll up or down command has been given to the computer.

Poorly Designed Products

iPhone Home Button

I'm sure that by typing "iPhone" right below "poorly designed" I have guaranteed a spirit of Steve Jobs casting a pox on my household, but I firmly believe that the Home button is the result of design that directly contradict's Norman's principles.

First is the most obvious problem with the button: it visually provides no hint as to its function, nor does it make any indication as to what the square shape on the button itself is for. Second is the fact that, while the button is mostly used to go back to the iPhone's "Home" state, there are a variety of other uses that range from esoteric to completely random. If one is already in the Home state, the iPhone moves directly to the search bar for an un-intuitive reason. Holding the button for equally ambiguous reasons brings up the audio commands. But the most blatant of all is the process of eliminating an app that's running in the background.

Speaking as someone who doesn't own an iPhone itself, but had the joyous experience of ending an app process while using my brother's iPhone, I continue to find this particular process to be borderline nonsensical. First, the Home button needs to be double-pressed rapidly, as if double-clicking, which brings the apps that are currently running. Then, the user has to tap and hold the app that he/she intends to end, which brings up a tiny red button on the corner of the app icon that must be pressed to finally get rid of the app. Absolutely none of these steps are simple or immediately obvious. In fact, without asking my brother there was simply no way for me to immediately know how to perform this function at all.

Door Knob

This unfortunate thing is situated in the entrance to my bathroom. Can you almost imagine the outer edge of the doorknob puncturing your palm and nearly opening a wound? Because that's the equivalent experience that you feel when you attempt to push down on it. The doorknob itself has a relatively clunky mechanism for downward movement when pushing it, but the worst part is actually on the other side of the door.

On this side, the side that locks the door that is, a supremely tiny knob designed for Irish folklore for locking the door from the inside. For some reason beyond my comprehension, this is a knob that one must turn counterclockwise by 90 degrees, rather than a simple button like nearly every other knob mechanism inside a house.

This lack of a distinct discrepancy between the locked state and the unlocked state might seem like a small nitpick, until you try to exit the bathroom and find that the door does not open until the knob is turned fully into the vertical "unlock" state. Fully into the vertical "unlock" state. As in, if the knob isn't exactly vertical, the door doesn't open. I can't really think of any situations in which exiting my bathroom would require such finger dexterity.

Airplane Restroom Door

I realized how poorly designed airplane restroom doors are when I witnessed a child become nearly psychologically traumatized for life attempting to use it. The last part of the sentence might be a slight exaggeration. The problem of these restroom doors is the fact that they slide open and closed in an awkward manner, with no indication of their intended use. This becomes immediately apparent upon exiting the restroom. 

A boy was in front of me when he entered the restroom during one flight. As he attempted to exit the restroom afterward, I heard some attempt of opening the door with the door's dingy little panels clumsily moving back and forth as they denied the child freedom. I heard more noise of effort to attempt to open the door accompanied with more denial. Finally, in an exasperated plea, I heard a shout "Could you open the door?!" coming from the inside of the purgatory. I pushed the hinge of the panels inside as the kid scurried away back to his seat without looking at anybody or saying anything. In reality, this the result of a really badly designed mechanism that is especially unwieldy from the inside, as the motion to slide the door open is far more awkward with that door in particular lacking any knob for use, as well as any indication of where the door should slide. To someone who isn't immediately familiar with this mechanism, it can become impossible to exit the restroom. A claustrophobic's worst nightmare.

Fan Controls

Attempting to operate an unfamiliar household ceiling fan will lead to either temporary blindness or a slightly stronger breeze. While admittedly this isn't high on the list of distressing experiences, the fact is that ceiling fans often switch the controls for manually changing the lights or the fan speed much to the chagrin of anyone who owns multiple different models in one house.

These fans often differentiate between the two chain switches by making one switch shorter than the other. But the sensible design essentially stops there. There's no intuitive indication as to why one chain length maps to either one of the two functions, and there's less of a chance of knowing which one of the two actually does which until one tries them out themselves. Without memorizing which fan has which function mapped to the shorter and longer chains, it can get frustrating attempting to move through the house and turn on multiple lights at once.

Cable TV Remote Control

There's much to be said about these monstrosities to fill entire books about them. These things are so horrifically designed that Donald Norman must be rolling in his grave even though he's still alive. The amount of nearly useless one-function buttons that have no place in a remote control is staggering, as is the gigantic form factor can be conceivably used as riot control equipment. Four dedicated "Favorite" buttons, five different "modes" of operation on the top, a directional pad with its own confirmation button, a "jump" and and "asterisk" button whose uses are entirely mysterious, a complete set of video-recording and playback controls that are there regardless of whether the user even intends to ever use them, even several buttons that are completely blank in labeling. Not to mention each major cable company has their own variation on these gewgaws with tweaked layouts and button functions, guaranteeing that nobody will ever be able to fully use all of these features and understand them. Truly one of the greatest examples of horrible user design, and the best part is that these have been standard issue for any owner of digital cable TV several decades already. This goes far beyond "resistance to change of established but inferior device" right into "insanity directed at the poor end user" territory.