Electrical Fiasco: Home Design at its Worst
Take a look at the photo below.
There is nothing ill-designed with the electrical outlet itself. It performs as it should, providing electricity and power to devices plugged into it.
The problem lies not with the functionality of the outlet, but with its placement.
While observing the photo, you can see that the floor is located right beneath the outlet, and there appears to be a heating unit right above it. Therefore, it can be inferred that the outlet is located underneath the heater right above the floor.
Who in their right mind thought this was good design?
First of all, the potential user of this electrical outlet has to recognize that the outlet is located underneath the heater, which is near impossible. I was only able to find out about this outlet by accidentally dropping something on the floor, bending over to pick it up, and saying, “Hey, look, another electrical outlet!…What is this doing here?”
It does not help that the border located along the bottom of the wall is a shade of dark gray. The heating unit casts a shadow on the outlet from above, thereby causing the outlet to blend in with the background.
Now, if the user actually finds the outlet, the next obstacle to overcome is plugging in a device. The user must get on his or her knees or bend down to even attempt to plug the device in.
What if the user has some physical handicap that prevents him or her from moving down (wheelchair, crutches, etc.)? Unfortunately, with the current design, there is no way around this issue.
An important thing to note is that the wall adjacent to the heating unit has plenty of empty space for another electrical outlet to be placed. Once again, this begs the question: who in their right mind thought this was good design?
Strangely enough, there is another electrical outlet just to the left of the camera on that same empty wall shown in the photo above. There is clearly plenty of space next to that outlet, yet the designers of this apartment complex decided to place the outlet underneath the heater.
Does that not also present a potential fire hazard with having electrical appliances plugged in underneath a heating unit?
I am not an electrical nor an architectural engineer, but something tells me that the reason for this design choice was due to cost. Even still, user needs should definitely take precedence over business needs, and a good balance between the two is integral to a well-designed product.
This balance is sorely lacking with the electrical outlet placement, which is why I chose it as my bad design. It technically functions as intended, supplying power when something is plugged into it. However, the exact location of the outlet renders it completely useless, as most residents of the apartment would most likely never notice it beneath the heating unit.
Plugging in an electrical device should never involve this level of physical activity.