Do you ever see something in the world that you just have to fix? Maybe you’ve spotted a crooked picture frame and had to put it back so it’s even. Maybe you’ve been in a restaurant bathroom and noticed the toilet paper roll was put on upside-down (everyone knows it’s over, not under, unless you have an …
Seguir leyendo 28 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (August 11, 2024)

If you’ve ever thrown a party, you know how effective signs can be. They’ll help direct people to the appropriate beverage station. They’ll keep people away from the door to your parent’s bedroom. And they might just help people realize there’s a cat behind that door and if you open it all manner of chaos will be …
Seguir leyendo 28 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (August 4, 2024)

Design is all around us, from the socks we put on our feet to the cars we drive to work to the pencils we use to write our to-do lists. Hundreds of thousands of micro-decisions had to go into every one of these. Someone had to decide how long the pencil should be, how thick, …
Seguir leyendo 26 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (July 28, 2024)

One of my most powerful dreams is being able to fully redecorate and re-design my own home with an unlimited budget. What I would give to be able to knock down walls, choose new bathroom fixtures, and buy all the vintage furniture I wanted.  But what they don’t tell you when you’re a kid building your …
Seguir leyendo 27 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (July 21, 2024)

Sometimes we have no choice but to fail. Have you ever been carrying a bunch of stuff in your hands, and as you’re making your way, you feel something about to slip out from your reach, but you have no way to stop it from happening, so you just have to let it fall? It …
Seguir leyendo 25+ Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (July 14, 2024)

Design is one of those things you only really notice when it has gone wrong. Good design tends to fade into the background. Think about the coffee mug. When it’s perfectly right, molded to your fingers, lightweight enough to be unencumbered by hefty enough to matter, you’re probably not thinking about it. But the second …
Seguir leyendo 27 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (July 7, 2024)

Decorating a new space can be harder than it seems. You think you know what size furniture to buy, how high to hang your wall art, and what corner that armchair should go in, but you’ll be quickly humbled. These things aren’t as intuitive as they might seem. There are thousands of micro-decisions that go into …
Seguir leyendo 27 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (June 30, 2024)

There are so many ingenious designs that we take for granted every day. Starting with the wheel. I’ll bet that no matter how you got to work today, it probably involved a wheel of some sort. Even if it was just a move on a wheely chair from your bedroom to your desk. The next important invention …
Seguir leyendo 27 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (June 23, 2024)

It’s Father’s Day, and if there’s one thing that a certain kind of dad loves to do, it’s look for typos in the newspaper. I swear it’s like a sport for them. They’ll be flipping through the features section just waiting for a slip-up.  I kind of get it. There’s a thrill in exposing someone else’s error. …
Seguir leyendo 27 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (June 16, 2024)

Am I the only one that pushes a «pull» door about once a week? If designs are supposed to be intuitive, then why does it seem like I’m constantly being a doofus? You know a design is done right when you have no choice but to use it correctly. You look at it, you know …
Seguir leyendo 26 Baffling Design Choices Found in the Wild (June 9, 2024)