13 ms·
This reminds me of "the designer's curse." I often find myself getting pissed when something is designed poorly. It used to be poorly designed software and we
by nostromo 13y ago
This reminds me of "the designer's curse." I often find myself getting pissed when something is designed poorly. It used to be poorly designed software and websites, but now it's anything.
Like, for example, when I buy something, pull the sticker off, and it leaves a thick residue that won't come off. Or, when I'm in a car without any indication of which side the gas tank is on.
My significant other makes fun of me for this. "Who thought doing THIS was a good idea? Do they buy their own f*ing products?" I'll say. Meanwhile, he has a non-founder view of life, "Meh, it's like that because it's like that."
He's clearly more zen than I am.
- spditner 13y agoThere's a little arrow which points left or right on the fuel gauge.
- pmahoney 13y agoBut not every car has that. I've been in a ~6-8 year old Honda Civic that lacked any indication as far as I could see.
- billforsternz 13y agoI don't understand. You want an indication of which side the gas tank is on ?! Wouldn't it be the side where there's a flap/cover thing that you pop open prior to unscrewing the cap and pouring the gas ? Edit: I had to leave the office, go downstairs, get in my car and check. Whatddya know, a little arrow next to the gauge, you learn something every day.
- tadfisher 13y agoYes, and it's helpful to know that before you park the car next to the pump on the wrong side.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- ffk 13y agoThis is most useful when you are renting or borrowing a car. If you don't check before you hop into the car, you need to physically exit the car and move it if you guessed incorrectly.
- andrewaylett 13y agoThere's no real reason why you can't fill up a reasonably large car (I (in the UK) have a Ford Galaxy) on the 'wrong' side of the pumps. Sometimes you have to be a bit more careful about positioning, but most hoses are long enough.
- ipince 13y agoI don't recall being in a car w no indication of which side the gas tank was on. Usually a little arrow indicates it next to the gauge.
- nostromo 13y agoYes, that's what I'm referring to. I use a service called Car2Go quite often which rents Smart cars exclusively. For some reason they decided not to include the little arrow. http://0.tqn.com/d/cars/1/0/6/9/1/ag_08fortwo_speedo.jpg http://0.tqn.com/d/cars/1/0/6/9/1/ag_08fortwo_speedo.jpg
- CamperBob2 13y agoNot that it's your fault they didn't include the arrow, but when you rent a car, you want to walk completely around it anyway before driving away. Otherwise they may try to stick you with pre-existing damage that wasn't noticed the last time the car was turned in. (I've heard it's a good idea to shoot a video of the walkaround with your phone, but that seems OTT.)
- aestra 13y agoI have never rented a car where the rental person didn't do this with me. Nobody is going to remember what side the gas tank is on though a week later when you fill it up.
- count 13y agoI've never rented a car where the rental person was even near the car when I walked it. And I rent cars every few days...maybe the lack of personal attention is an airport thing.
- eru 13y agoI usually take a few pictures, but video should work, too.
- reledi 13y agoAfter taking an HCI course and reading The Design of Everyday Things, I also notice poorly designed things quite often. BTW, there's a free course based off that book starting this fall: https://www.udacity.com/course/design101 https://www.udacity.com/course/design101.
- asafira 13y agoThis might not be the best place to mention this, but here goes anyway: I started reading The Design of Everyday Things, but I've been disappointed so far. To be fair, I'm only 50 pages in, but I haven't read anything mind blowing in any way yet. The book so far has been a compendium of author's anecdotes regarding poorly designed things/systems/manuals/etc. I certainly agree with what he says, absolutely. At the same time though, it doesn't keep my attention because it just seems like story after story, no logical foundation that he's building for creating a well-designed product. Here's to hoping it gets better!
- AznHisoka 13y agoThat and the Mythical Man Month were duds for me. I never understood why they were so highly regarded amongst engineers.
- marcosdumay 13y agoThey aren't duds. The problem is that they are so influential that every newcomer already knows whats they say, just by virtue of learning their trade after the books were written.
- damncabbage 13y agoTV Tropes (!) of all places has a great explanation, applied to comedy: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny
- BillyMaize 13y ago
- cgore 13y agoActually, one of my related pet peeves are all cars where the fuel fill cap is NOT on the driver side of the vehicle. It is always just a little bit easier to not scratch the side of your car on the giant concrete barriers that way.
- Arelius 13y agoWeird, my pet peeve is cars where the fuel fill cap is ON the driver side of the car, Since I'm used to driving the right side of the car closer to things on the side of the road I feel like I can position that side better.
- devb 13y agoDo manufacturers try to even out the number of cars with fill caps on either side? Imagine the chaos at gas stations if everyone had the cap on the same side of the car.
- Kluny 13y agoI'm pretty sure it would be a lot more orderly, actually. Everyone on the right side would move one way, everyone on the left side would move the other way, it would be perfect.
- dmoo 13y agoOn all the cars that I have had, the fuel cap is on the drivers side of the country in which the car is designed. So depending on which side of the road they drive on in that country things move. Just a personal data point..
- lelandbatey 13y agoOne of the most zen states is when you can just say "it's like that because it's like that" for most things in you life, while celebrating the tiny examples of loving design that are less frequent, but equally as all around us. It's the other side of that coin, and it's pretty darn peaceful : )
- krichman 13y agoOh those damn stickers. And every time I get a pair of scissors in that indestructible plastic...
- melvinmt 13y ago"Or, when I'm in a car without any indication of which side the gas tank is on." Very easy: most American cars have the gas tank on the left, most Asian/European cars have it on the right.
- coryl 13y agoWait, whats the definition of an Asian/European car. The manufacturer or the geographic location? Cause I'm pretty sure Hondas and Toyotas have gas on the left.
- dalek_cannes 13y agoSuzukis have them on the left too.
- rhuppert 13y agoI'm shocked my Tesla Model S is lacking in this feature. Elon must have been asleep at the wheel.
- BillyMaize 13y agoWait what? Since when does a tesla car have a gas tank or am I missing something?
- andrewingram 13y agoI think that's the joke
- andrewingram 13y agoIn the UK, the balance is roughly 50/50, from a sample size of 100 (me going into streets and counting the cars). I did a simulation of petrol stations when I was at university, trying to work out optimal arrangements of pumps, so I needed to know if there was a bias towards the fuel cap being on a particular side of the car (there wasn't). This could be because in the UK our cars come from a wide-variety of places.
- philsnow 13y agothe "designer's curse" sounds like what I've heard it's like to have perfect (absolute) pitch: it can become difficult to enjoy music ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch#Possible_problems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_pitch#Possible_problem... )
- ChuckMcM 13y agoI went through a period of pretty unproductive time when I was so mad at how crappy things were designed that I couldn't use them to make progress against my projects. That is a bad place to be.
- DigitalJack 13y agoIt's one thing to notice things like this, it's another to get upset. It's not like whomever poorly designed or implemented whatever had a personal grudge against you.
- huhtenberg 13y ago> I'm in a car without any indication of which side the gas tank is on. I absolutely hate it when they don't indicate which door on the fridge is a freezer. So annoying. Seriously though, gas tank indicators make sense only in rental cars and most of them have aftermarket stickers that do just that.
- devx 13y agoWell, if it makes you feel any better, the iPhone will feel forever ruined for the post's author, since it's doesn't hit that "perfect" 3.5" screen size for one-handed use anymore.