30 Mistakes Made By Designers And Architects Who Didn’t Think Of The Person Who’d Be Using Their Designs (2024)

Danish Dynomummy

Oh yeah the neverending ponytail and bun struggle is real... my SO always tells me I look like the Bendneck Lady when I drive lol

Victor Trejo

Also, in Japan, bathrooms have a sort of ledge where you can place your stuff while using the urinals. There are also hooks to hang your umbrella or bags.

Brian Bennett

Because that would be using common sense! Apparently this too is a waning commodity!

NsG

There shouldn't have been a fight because it shouldn't have been an "if". The discussion should have started from "where do we put the disposal?"

CLG

Those are indeed the worst, and seem to be popular with "sleek" contemporary designs. A huge sink with the spout reaching 1" past the edge so you have to press your hands against the side of the basin to access the water.

Chich

My one experience with what I now take to be a purse hook was when they were installed on the face of the bar just where your knee would find them when sitting on the stool.

John Smith

Was the designer bloody stupid johnson?

Ozacoter

In general things are designed with the worst way for handicap people. Urban architects and engineers should live a month in a wheelchair or with a stroller before they do things. For example the metro at my parents city is """adapted""" for us, they put a beautiful sticker and cheered of how amazing they are. The metros are taller than the platforms and it leaves a small step. Small enough that a walking person wont notice but bit enough that my disabilities scotter cannot get there...

SusanS

Only the wealthy can afford to become an architect in America.

Danish Dynomummy

BP taught me that those gaps in the stalls i an American thing. Sooo happy we dont have those

Jess

Wasteful and disgusting. Flushing sends up particles into the air and can spread across the bathroom so you breathe in the aerosolized waste or the potentially harmful bacteria/viruses from stool, urine, vomit...

Mr Neil

Bring a roll of blue painters tape and put a piece over the sensor while you clean then move it to the next toilet when you finish that one. It will keep it from flushing

Steffen Rehm

Yeah, we got a new delivery ramp years back, so we do not need to use the public entrance anymore. Turns out we use the public entrance since them anyways, because the ramp is highly unsafe and horrible to work with. The architect is still mad at us, he think, it was a great idea.

Francis

my bf who is a chef also hates sinks that are to small for a very large pot and/or too far away from the stove so that you have to carry the big, full and therefor heavy pot to the stove. it's something he hates in his professional kitchen and in our ymall privat one LOL

Brian Bennett

You can't hang it on the hook at the top of the door if it has one - it can be reached by a determined thief. And who wants to put it on the floor

Pamda Panda

I had to get a glob of soap on my hands and let a little girl swipe it off because the soap dispensers were impossible for her to reach. This was at a ski resort, with ski schools and everything. Main lodge at the bottom of the mountain

Big Blue Cat

Yeah, place where I used to work had floor to ceiling glass walls on conference rooms. Then they had to add curtains because you know, sometimes you might be sharing something you can't announce to the whole company. Also it is a distraction when you are in a meeting in a glass cube and you see people outside the cube passing by.

Mark Vosters

And how about designing parking lots in northern climates that snow plows can actually maneuver around

Ogre Juan

A Brand High School (1991) Had A Chemistry Lab With An Emergency ShowerBut NO Floor Drain--Contaminated Water Everywhere

Jenn C

At my McDonald's the stall is so short they had to cut a hole in the door so it could swing past the toilet when it opened. You had to stand beside the toilet to get in or out.

Paula Marowsky

Every time software is 'upgraded', becomes inevitably worse.

John Smith

I have repeatedly seen paper towel dispensers that you grab the towel to pull some out, but the damn thing is set so tight all you get is a very small handful of paper. Bloody useless.

Eucritta

And/or there's a 'vessel sink' like a honking great mixing bowl on a high counter. I've thought, I hope whoever designed this mess has to use this very bathroom when they're old and arthritic, and see how -they- like it.

Carbonel

I’ve heard about lots of school libraries that were centrally placed in their buildings …fantastic! Centrally placed in an atrium … not fantastic. (No walls = no crowd control, no noise control, no stock control…)

Nicole A

At a school I taught in they put the drains in the center but sloped the floors UPWARDS towards the drains. So nothing would run in the drain unless the entire room was flooded with 1.5 inches of liquid. Our poor janitor was always fighting with the bathrooms and especially the ones for the little kids with bad aim. He'd have to hose the floor down and then sweep the pissy water towards the drains for a half hour to attempt to clean things.

Ogre Juan

Disney Had A Coaster W/ Animatronic Bigfoot That Is Static Now.Movement Cracked The Foundation And Can Only Be Braced. A Proper Fix Would Have To Dismantle The Entire Ride. Too Expensive They Said

StellaLehggs

The art department at my college was connected to the architecture building, and they were the ugliest buildings on campus. The bathrooms were small and dark, the lighting was horrible throughout, the elevator would frequently stop a few inches above the floor and was slow as hell, which meant that more often than not, you were hauling projects and art supplies up a narrow flight of stairs. 😑

Kimi Tomminello

Time traveler?

Otter

Uh... was that bad design, or good?

Ellie Rosser

Also dishwashers! It's bad enough having to bend down to load one (really, can't the top be higher than the bench without causing armageddon?) but when you have to twist as well to reach the place where dirty dishes are stored before going in then that's just beyond irritating. Also, if I can't walk past it when the door is open I am not happy.

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