Oh look, a new thread purely for us all to rant, whinge and moan about "Bad Design" and devices / features that exhibit it. iPhone 6 Plus Power Switch I'm starting with the location of the power switch on the 6+ because Apple have moved it from the top (Where it's been since 2007) and positioned it on the right. So now it's directly opposite the volume up. If I press the power button while applying an opposing force to the other side of the phone I turn the volume up... or I press the power button... or I press both together. If I want to use the volume up key as the shutter release then when using my index finger my thumb rests perfectly on the power button. I might take a picture... I might switch the phone to standby. Sure I've got used to this, but it's just bad design and a poor UX.
Copyright infringement alert!!!!! My Samsung Galaxy has the power button in the same place and it irritates the life out of me!!
pretty much ALL samsungs have them there... they irritate me. When I saw apple do that, my heart dropped
All iPhones since the 3GS? Not sure if it counts as bad design, but the OPO has the back and menu buttons the opposite way round from every other Android phone I've ever used.
Nokia 520 also had buttons wrongly placed. I cannot remember which ones exactly though I am thinking the volume buttons might have been one ones in question. It was so easy to turn the volume down whilst putting the phone was in a pocket of belt case. Which meant you could and I did miss the next call. Also the same phone only vibrated twice if you had an incoming call so easily missed. I am sure that there were a few more design flaws buy I got rid of the phone very quickly.
Button locations, you can't please everyone it seems, I don't like buttons on the long edge of phones, particularly centrally located ones but that's because I like to use them landscape in mounts that tend to drip those edges in the middle. LG phones pretty good in this regard no buttons on any edge. I also don't like the home key on the Apple ipad being where it is as I like to use it landscape mode and if I grip the side I can often press the button but it doesn't seem to bother anyone else. Speakers on the back or bottom of TVs/Phones, they should be on the front why push sound out away from the User?
The main speaker on my old HTC One X was on the back at the bottom. I order for me to ensure that I heard the alarm in the morning I had to make sure that the bottom quarter of the phone was held off the surface that it was resting on. Another bad design that I have recently had far too much experience of is the construction of the Kindle 4. Everything is stuck together with double sided tape making replacement of easily broken or worn out parts such as the screen and battery all but impossible without getting a whole new housing.
The spare wheel retention system on MK3 Renault Clio's. Sure, after a combined total of 7 years of MK3 ownership and too many punctures than I care to think of in that time, I (a 6'4", 100kg male engineer in his twenties) got used to how it works, but for your average girl/lady/woman or even the not-so technical or slightly weaker guy, it would be nearly impossible to use! Getting it out isn't that hard, you unscrew a large plastic nut under the toolkit, give it a smack and it drops down under the car on a plastic holder. You then unhook the wire retention clip from the plastic holder and the whole thing can be removed from under the car. Getting it back in again after a puncture has been repaired is silly hard though; It has a ratcheting mechanism which requires you to re-attach the plastic holder to the wire through the hub opening on the wheel, then from the boot space, yank the handle up with the wheel (and plastic holder) in the correct orientation so it clicks into place on the bottom tooth of the mechanism. Once you do that and release the handle, the wire automatically retracts again and you have to screw that large white plastic nut to secure the wheel under the car again. It's demonstrated in the following video on a space saving "donut" wheel, but my cars have both had full size spares which are considerably heavier. Oh, and you see that spare wheel jack in the toolkit of the video? You can get it out with ease, but you practically need a degree in mechanical engineering as well as hands of steel to get it back in again!
I use my tablet to read the Daily Telegraph with the their App which only works in Portrait orientation and keep hitting the back button with my thumb. Normally this wouldn't be a problem except the App is poorly designed so I can't jump back to where I was, I have to scroll through up to 50 pages.
I can't stand desks with strengthening beams running under them so that: a) you bang your knees on them. b) you can't push your chair under at the end of the day.
I'll add to that desks with a back panel of sufficient height to ensure that you can't stretch your legs out and if you try will scuff up the ends of your shoes.