Design shouldn't come before function.
Yet sometimes it does...and it's crazy. People pay so much money for something that serves a purpose and then design gets in the way.
tthatoneguyy asked Reddit:
What's the worst case of design over function that you've ever seen?
Here are some of the answers.
No Longer Instant
There's a brand of pregnancy test that will send the results to your phone. You have to search for the app, download it, pee on the test and wait for the results.
What was wrong with the regular tests? By the time you've downloaded the app, you could have had your results.
A Recipe For Mold
Residing in heart of the Texas Medical Center (largest in the country, over 107k people) you will find the McGovern Commons Building. This building serves as the main food area and central meeting hub for the entire multi-hospital complex
The two walls on opposite sides of the McGovern building perpetually have two cascading waterfalls that light up at night and look pretty.
However even the slightest breeze causes the water to move sideways and blasts the main entrance and exit with what looks like sideways torrential rain. There is a constant puddle right at the door, walking through it at the wrong time can literally soak you down to your underwear even if you are in a wool suit. On windy days there will be crowds of people forming at their doors waiting for a break in the gusts so they can run out.
The water isn't exactly clean either, the high surface area sheets of water pull the thick yellow Texas Spring pollen out of the air like a filter. The collecting pools are laden with algae and an assortment of other microbes.
I guarantee you every day immunocompromised patients from MD Anderson and Texas Children's Hospital are exposed to that dirty water, people futilely shield their drinks/food, it gets on doctors coats and nurses scrubs, it douses visiting venture capitalists and international dignitaries as a welcome to the institution. It only a matter of time before a patient slips, cracks their skull wide open, and rightfully sues for millions.
Even in the picture the builders use to show off their work all of the cement is soaked.
https://redondomfg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/MD-Anderson-Water-Wall-1024x6161.jpg
Apps Galore
Im super tired of all these companies having their own app. I dont want to download a HomeDepot app just to find where they hid the wood glue. Similarly, I don't want to download a restaurant's app just to read the menu.
Websites work fine.
There Are Things We Shouldn't Have To Worry About
I was staying at a hotel in Cleveland where the toilet paper holder was across the room from the toilet. You had to waddle your way over there to get some paper. The first time I used it I sighed so loud.
Why?!
On the "worlds best houses show", there was a house where the rooms didnt connect to each other. As in you had to walk outside and then reenter the house from the outside every time you wanted to change rooms. And this house was in the Arizona desert, great thinking for when summer rolls around.
Function Over Fashion
The architecture of schools doing remodeling when they really can't afford to.
My ex-boyfriend is interning at an architecture firm and they let him look at the plans for some of these schools. They were literally designed by a legislator somewhere who thought that huge glass panels and weirdly shaped rooms were the key to raising performance. He gave a nice long rant about its design flaws and how impractical it would be to build.
Then again, my high school has hexagon shaped rooms and we're due for a renovation soon...
Bye Bye
My laptop's power button is just another key on the keyboard, right next to the delete and backspace keys. I've accidentally hit it on more than one occasion.
Ain't No Valley Low Enough
Neighbor built a new house where both the front and back roofs slope down towards each other in the middle of the house, forming a big valley. Predictably, his house floods when it rains.
I'm (Not) Lovin' It
There's a McDonald's in my town; and in the dining area the ceiling lights are so big and hang so low that, on some tables, they are actually at head height and below. You literally can't see the person sitting opposite you.
Retirement?
Just watched the first episode of that World's Most Extraordinary Houses show on Netflix. They have this house with basically like giant's causeway stairs that go up to the main door. They are all uneven. And some have big gap between them. And the couple that built it want to retire to this house. Come on. My grandpa fell down regular stairs all the time. Just. Come on.
Later Medical Problems
My company's new offices, which feature stools only - meaning I don't get any back support for EIGHT hours of work. They look sleek and modern af but the lack of regard for employee comfort is just astounding to me
Aesthetic Dementia
I work in a dementia memory support unit, and we recently got new furniture. The only things we got for the residents to sit on were these rolling chairs with no locks. They were very nice looking but there was a huge spike in falls due to the chairs sliding right out from underneath.
It took a month to get them changed because the design team said the chairs match the style too well and didn't want to mismatch the whole room
Springy
The "chandelier" in the board room at work. It's less a chandelier and more a metal ring of tiny light bulbs.
First off, it gives off like zero light. In fact, there are two other light switches in that room because you need two more banks of recessed lighting to make that room any brighter than a cave. I'm not good at judging square footage, but that room comfortably holds 50 people if that tells you anything.
The worst part is changing the bulbs. I've only had to do it once, but it was a pain in the ass. Each Christmas-light-sized bulb is spring loaded. You have to unhook the bottom and the top without pulling the whole thing down, and it's suspended on three wires.
Pain In The Head
My university's dining center has these ceiling lamps that descend to about a foot below head height (low ceiling).
And they're situated right above the f-ckin booths.
I've conked my head on those goddamn lamps so many f-ckin times.
Poor Anton
I'm gonna go with the gear shift that murdered Anton Yelchin. Fucking pretentious bullshit. So many people had to have approved that f-cking thing, and not one of them ever thought that maybe not being able to tell the difference between Neutral or Park is f-cking dangerous.
Assault And Battery
Where they place batteries in cars now. On my Ford focus they have it half under the edge of the engine compartment, to the point they ran a ground out because you can't reach the stump to jump it. And if you have to change the battery you need a socket with an extension to get the bolt off. Why do that? Why not just put it out in the open like they used to, so I can get to it.
Recess?
My middle school for the longest time mandated kids wash their hands...before recess outside.
Like I* get it is to promote cleanliness which aint a bad thing but the second you touch a ball or chalk your hands are dirty again and they had no such enforcement coming back instead after recess so it was weird.
Button Horn
My mother got a new car recently, and its horn isn't in the center of the steering wheel where it usually is in most cars. Instead it's a button behind the wheel next to the indicator switches. I really can't think of any reason something so vital would be moved away from where it is generally understood that it should be, other than the designing team decided they wanted to introduce "their own design".
If there was suddenly a serious life-or-death situation where she needed to blast the horn to warn someone of an oncoming car or something, she definitely would not be able to find the horn as quickly as she might need to.
Can't See!
At the local children's hospital, which is a new building, the lettering on the signs and most of the entrances outside was a very tasteful white lettering over a pale green background. A little bit of the signage in front was white letters on a dark blue background or something. I noticed how hard most of these signs were to read and I actually called the hospital saying that this would be too hard for someone to read at night, especially a teary-eyed parents coming late at night to the hospital, trying to park or find the correct entrance. I called the hospital about it and just told them. Recently all of the signs have been changed to more legible lettering, although I doubt it was due to my calling. But maybe many people complained about it.
Totally Impractical
Not just small pockets on women's clothing, but fake pockets. It gets worse. Sometimes there'll be a fake zipper on a fake pocket. :(
