CEP 817 Examples of Good & Bad Design

DESIGNED’s

Good Bad

Brian Carlson, Sarah Emery-Hall, Erik Kubota, Amy Peterson, Jung Sung

“GOOD DESIGN”This Belkin Cable Dome organizes computer cables to provide a neat, clean look. The design makes this product easy to mount on a desk or table. Cables are kept hidden from view and are easy to remove and add new cables as needed.

Kohler No-Handle Touch-To-Activate FaucetA pretty simple design, that’s functional, and helpful…

especially for when you have goop on your hands, and no one is around to turn on the faucets for you.

“GOOD DESIGN” (continued)OXO Brand Measuring Cup

Eliminates the need for bending over sidewaysto see what your measurements are. You can nowlook straight-down (you know, the position that you normally cook from) to see how much is in the cup.

Sweet Corn HoldersThese things conveniently keep you from burning your fingers on those

delicious, piping hot ears of sweet corn that you enjoy every summer. Sure,

you could be patient, and wait for the corn to cool off to the touch, but how

is your butter going to melt?

“GOOD DESIGN” (continued)http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

A well designed website… (which just happens to be about design):•Tons of easily navigated information (grouped into categories)•Visually clean•Not a lot of unnecessary clutter on page (minus advertisements)

“GOOD DESIGN” (continued)

Good Infographic• Accurately represents the increases proportionally.• Graphically represents the relationship between tuition and

room and board.

“GOOD DESIGN” (continued)This basin does not need

complicated plumbing construction.

This staircase is a very good design for small spaces. It can be used as drawers too.

“BAD DESIGN”These elevator buttons would confuse anybody. People wanting to take the elevator up don’t know whether to select the button above the arrow that points up or the button next to it. I’m guessing that most people may just press both buttons to get the elevator to appear either way. The real question is; what do the buttons inside the elevator look like?

The Easy-Bake OvenYou cook with a 100-watt light bulb,

using recipes designed for one. Nothing about this is realistic, and

nothing that comes out of this contraption EVER looks like the picture,

much less tastes any good. Gross.

“BAD DESIGN” (continued) Neo-Modern Couches That Have No Back

Support, No Side Arms, and Five Thousand Useless PillowsSeriously? How is this even remotely comfortable? If you sit on one of the ends, there is no armrests to lean on, and if you’d like to lay down, you’d have to do away with about eleven pillows to accommodate your average adult size frame. It may look awesome, but it’s functionality is ridiculous.

The “Pizza Oven” Countertop Model (Of Rotating Monstrosity)

My husband and I received one of these for a wedding present. Needless to say, we returned it. It required nearly two square feet of (precious) counter

space in order to operate it, and it only did one thing—cooked frozen pizzas. No thank you, we know how

to use our oven, and let me tell you, that thing can multi-task!

“BAD DESIGN” (continued)http://www.thomasedison.org/

A poorly designed website because of…•Lots of unnecessary/distracting animation•Confusing layout and navigation•Difficult to read text due to small font size

“BAD DESIGN” (continued)

Bad Infographic• The changes in the pie chart are so

dramatic it’s hard to identify what’s different.

• The sequence of the colors to not stay in the same order.

“BAD DESIGN” (continued)

Why is the arrangement of numbers on the calculators and on the phones opposite? This is very uncomfortable when we use calculators, because many of us are so used to using the phone.