5 Examples of Bad Product Design You’ve Gotten Used To

If you ever tried eating Heinz Ketchup from one of the iconic glass bottles, you’ve probably experienced the same frustration as everyone else- either no ketchup comes out or the entire bottle floods your plate. Yes, of course there are supposedly easy tricks to solving this problem (Heinz suggests tapping the number 57 on the bottle neck) or you could opt for the plastic squeeze bottle instead. But then of course Heinz has also instilled the idea of the glass bottle as that of better quality, keeping the ketchup fresher and just resembling that iconic look- all characteristics that lead us to continue to buy and be frustrated by a flawed design.

If we take a closer look at other common items we use almost everyday, you might notice there are lots of examples of bad design that we have just gotten used to. Here are my top 5:

1. US Currency- As a foreigner, this one is still a tough one for me to understand. For starters, why is the 5ct coin larger than the 10ct? Would it not be logical to have coins increase in size as the amount of value increase? Like many other instances of bad design, this one apparently has its root cause from the very beginning of US coin production back in 1793. Seems like it might be time for an upgrade? But on the other hand, could you imagine getting used to the new coin sizes? These kinds of habits are hard to break and so we’re left with the poor design from over 300 years ago. I also think the bills could benefit from different coloring (as they do in many other countries) but that’s a debate I will probably never win. At least the bills clearly state their value, whereas with coins, good luck reading the fine print.
2. Keyboards- This one might be more controversial- our standard QWERTY keyboards aren’t necessarily designed poorly. In fact, they were actually a great invention of good design back in 1800s, when typewriters were first invented and became popular. Notice a theme here yet? :) They basically solved the problem of keys colliding and jamming when they were pressed next to each other in quick succession. The QWERTY keyboard, first introduced with the Remington №2 typewriter in 1878, solved this problem by spacing keys you use most frequently while typing as far apart as possible from each other. It quickly became the new standard keyboard for typewriters and as the first computers were invented it was only natural to continue to use this standard keyboard layout. Again, old habits are hard to break. There are alternative keyboard layouts such as the Dvorak or Colemak. The Dvorak keyboard takes the most commonly used letters and places them in the middle, pushing the least commonly used letters to the bottom row- a layout that can prove to be more efficient, can increase typing speed, and even offers better ergonomics. However, it would take time to learn how to use this new keyboard layout- time that most people aren’t willing to spend and on top of that it’s not necessarily proven that these designs are actually superior to the good, old QWERTY. Once you take a look at the history of this standard keyboard, however, it does make you wonder if we’re limiting ourselves by using such an outdated design.
3. Microwaves- When was the last time you used every single button on your microwave? I’m guessing that answer is never. Microwaves usually have a very simple function- heat up food for a set period of time. Perhaps you’d like to adjust the temperature or power, but I doubt most people care about this additional setting, let alone would know how to adjust it properly. It seems like all the buttons you need are a time, an on/off button and maybe that tempting popcorn button. Even though they could be designed with such simplicity, most microwaves I’ve seen still have the same type of “mission control interface” with tons of buttons that no one knows how to use properly- an overly complicated, bad design for such a simple, one-step function, product.
4. Bottle Caps- This one might be less obvious because we’ve become so accustomed to using bottle openers (or a myriad of other techniques) to pop open the cap from your bottled drink of choice. What would you say, however, if I told you they were alternatives that didn’t require the use of an additional tool. Yes, of course there are twist caps, which are usually viewed as less “cool” or for the “weaker” people. But there are lots of other options as well: for example a cap with ring pull functionality by a Finish bottling plant. This option seems to be a better design and much easier to use, but similar to the other examples of bad design I’ve mentioned, it’s just not what we’re used to and so it will most likely not change. Besides, what kind of promotional materials will companies be able to hand out, if bottle openers aren’t a thing anymore?
5. TV Remotes- Last, but not least another example of a product that has too many options and buttons when all you need is just a couple. On top of that, each TV remote has a slightly different layout and different buttons have different functionalities. This all results in the fact that most people only use the channel and volume buttons. So why don’t remotes have only those buttons or at least make those buttons the largest + easiest to use? Yes, of course there are smart TVs now that have much simpler remotes, including Apple TV or Roku. However, the vast majority of TVs still use the same, old poorly designed remote. I think this one might be changing as people are using more and more smart devices to control their TVs (such as tablets) and it will be interesting to see if the TV remote will even continue to exist in the next decade.

And to end this story, another iconic example of bad design: