I don't think anything in this article is designed "poorly" and I don't think the author meant to convey that the design was bad - the designs of these objects

I don't think anything in this article is designed "poorly" and I don't think the author meant to convey that the design was bad - the designs of these objects just have a goal of being unpleasant. If your goal is to design something unpleasant, and you succeed, I would say that is a good design.