The article was inspired by this thread on Quora and here is one of the clever answers given to kick it off.
Refrigerators
Fridges have had the same design since the 1940s. Cram all your perishable foods into a cold box and hope you remember to eat it before it gets furry.
Energy Waste: 4th largest consumer of energy in households using 7.3% of US household consumption
Bad UI: Open a large door to search for ingredients as cold air escapes
Inefficient Storage: Depth of fridge is useless when you can’t see what’s behind the first row. Accessing food in the back is a pain since food in the front is blocking it.
Mystery Box: Food considered fresh until discovered as spoiled
Waste Producer: The EPA estimated that Americans generate roughly 34MM tons of food waste per year
Don’t you agree these are all obvious issues and yet nobody came up with a solution yet?
Thing is, I see examples of bad product design almost everywhere I look. From objects used everyday (car, phone, …) to specific products and services in my industry (IT).
The end result of sloppy design is wasted time, energy, resources. Which is not a smart thing to have given that we are having less and less time, energy and resources.
So I am seeing this more and more as my new personal goal to produce sane, well thought of, user interfaces to products I create. The next one I will do, will probably be email.
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