What is the purpose of the Bad Designs web site?
A. The purpose of the web site is to provide a variety of examples of bad designs – everyday things that cause people to become confused, to make mistakes or to have other difficulties with their use. I hope these examples will help students and others understand how to design things so that they are more easily used and that the examples are also somewhat entertaining. Q. What are you, stupid? These things aren’t bad designs! You’re just too dumb to figure out how to use them! You have no common sense. You’re too lazy to read instructions. A. Things designed for common use should not require that people have an above average intelligence and should not require them to expend a lot of mental energy or time learning, problem solving or reading instructions. These requirements are obstacles that dramatically decrease the number of potential users. If designers want their products to be widely used, they are well-advised to design them so that they are easy to use.
