Designs that just got worse over time!

Have you ever wondered why some designs just doesn't improve over time even though the functionality pulls in one direction and user friendliness and evolution pulls, wait, in the exact same direction?

Here are some examples from real life..

Lets start with Apple, known for their innovative design quality and sensible approach to functionality. From a user perspective, one of its biggest blunders must be its power cable and its magnetic connector to the laptop.

This smart AC magnetic connective device was introduced in 2007 and was totally revolutionary because it just made so much sense. First thought was, why didn't I think of that, it's absolutely brilliant and straightforward. If you tripped over the cable or somehow, unintentionally, pulled it from the laptop, it would just break off without leaving any damage due to its magnetic connection with the power inlet on the laptop.

Try to do the same with an old timer AC-cable that goes half way into your laptop. A strong pull would rip the whole power connection in you laptop apart and cost you at least 50 euro to fix not counting the probable damage of a close encounter with a hard and not so welcoming floor.

So what happened to this great idea of using a magnetic connection? Well for starters its design was really well thought out because the cable that would join the magnetic connector, that plugs into the laptop, was placed in the middle, meaning that in what ever direction you would pull the cable, it would disconnect flawlessly leaving you with an 4D 180 degree angle for cable blunders.

The cable at the end of the connector limits an easy break off!

When too much thought goes into renovating a design for the purpose of the design, well, that's when
things usually go wrong.
Apple is no exception because their next generation power cable connector, although magnetic as its predecessor, had the cable placed at the end of the magnetic connector instead of the middle! Great one might think, but if you pull the cable in the same direction as it is fitted onto the connector, you will once again have your Mac laptop unintentionally lying on the floor!

Most power cables break in exactly the same place!

Well, Apple must have thought that this new design (see picture above) was an easy and a great solution to the amount of complaints they received with their first magnetic power connector!
But what could be wrong with this 1st. magnetic design that would save so many laptops from gravity? 

Well the connection between the magnetic connector and electrical cable was simply too weak in its composition and construction. 

The rotating strain would over time become too great (plastic, rubber has a tendency to get weak with changes in temperatures and if moved a lot!) and within an unreasonable short time (usually less than a year), the cable would rupture just beneath the magnetic connector head, as you can see on the picture above. We have a whole generation of Mac-AC power cables looking just like that or much worse, keeping in mind that a new Mac power cable is just above 70 euros, depending on you local Mac-pusher! Being Apple this could very well be intended but we will leave it at that.

So what went wrong? Instead of improving the 2nd. design, stabilizing the breakage point with a stronger rubber or plastic protection, the point between the cable and the magnetic connector in the new design was equally weak and prone to rupture - so much for a second go! But if you accidentally trip over the newly designed power cable, pulling it in the same direction as the cable, it will still toss your computer to the floor, as the magnetic connector is blocked by the angle of the pull. 

So the only successful improvements on the Apple power cable, until now, is avoiding breaking the power inlet on the laptop when starting a free fall but at the same time increasing the chance that you in fact will pull your Mac to the floor again due to the angle of blunder pull - two steps forward and one step back to the drawing board Apple!


Mobile design blunders
Mobile phones are such an integral part of our lives and subsequently requires a lot of thought to its design when conditioning it to easy and logical use. But a few phone designers completely forgot to make an evaluation of which buttons on the phone are used the least and the most in order to place them in a user friendly position when finalizing the mobile design.

I think that we all pretty quickly can agree on that one of the mostly used

Power button isolated to avoid confusion!

physical button on a cell phone is the on/off or power switch. So you really want to keep this button isolated to avoid it interfering with any other buttons when making out the design - who wants to turn off their cell phone when the intention was an adjustment of the volume? Tactile interference will make it hard to take a quick photo of your jumping dog when your fingers find the wrong botton!

The BQ power button is marked in red

So why does certain mobile phone producers insist on placing the on/off button so close to any other buttons on the cell phone? Somebody must have been sleeping in the design class because the obvious result of placing two or more buttons, with different functionality, so close to each other will only result in tactile confusion and in worst case turning off your mobile unintentionally when the real intention was to zoom and take a picture of your jumping dog.



Dear BQ, Huawei and other cell phone manufactures, try to think more about physical user friendliness when you design cell phones!


Toilets - the power of the flush
Things that include repetition and gravity should usually do well in the design world. But these two very simple conditions, when designing a toilet, are in fact not that simple or straight forward at all. Lets take a look, but not too close!

And why exactly does the toilet designers have such disgusting issues, I mean it is not like reinventing the spoon again, or is it?

If you think of it, toilets have been used for centuries and one should think that we had finally reached a point where the design couldn't be developed any further as the toilet does serve its purpose to perfection - but in most cases only if accompanied by a toilet brush, I might add.

..a trusted companion..

But if the toilet design was well made, then why should we need a toilet brush at all. Wouldn't gravity and the force of the directional water flush render the brush useless?
Well, no, because practically every manufacturer wants their own design and brand to stand out as being different from their competitors and here comes the funny part.
To achieve this different look, the designers somehow always opt for also changing and redesigning the shape of the interior disposal conduct because what exactly could go wrong.
Well lots of "stuff" could go wrong, if they cared to try it out.

Water power and surface is a symbiosis when flushing.

Changing the interior surface design around the toilets outlet channel will also affect the direction and force of the water flush and if the outlet hole, surface variation and force of water is not up to scratch, you will find yourself and everybody else grabbing for the toilet brush in order to make a very annoying clean up after something that shouldn't have been there in the first place. 


One of the big mistakes when designing toilets is the amount of water used for flushing. Water is often being spared for this repetitious action as it inevitably

This toilet is clean, but only if you use a toilet brush after use!

will be part of you water bill. This is why there are usually two options when "pulling the chain". One for more water and one for less.

But if the "interior design" of the toilet surface is off, it doesn't matter how much water you use for flushing. You will still need the toilet brush when having to clean out the last unfortunate decomposed bits of your dinner. 




On the picture above you can see just such an example, where the flush hole is isolated leaving to many lateral sides where the water direction and force doesn't achieve any cleaning effect. 

I would kindly remind toilet manufactures that design is everything, also when you flush a toilet and especially if you hate using the toilet brush. Therefore the best advice for toilet designers would be to take a hearty dump to test the facilities and "the power of the flush".