Bad Industrial Design In Ascendance
Thursday, July 17, 2014
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| Kenmmore Special Edition fridge |
Recently I gave my eldest daughter my
beautiful Acoustic Research transistor amplifier. It has only five knobs on its
front. It is all polished brass and I believe a thing of beauty. Mated to a
pair of antique AR speakers her sound system is superb. It is a model of
simplicity in which design follows function.
I believe we are living in an era where
industrial design is falling off the shelf.
As examples why is my sink so difficult to
wash clean? A good industrial designer would use the principle of shaping the
sink so that water draining would create a clockwise or counterclockwise swirl
that would drain and clean at the same time.
Two years ago I went to London Drugs and
asked to talk to the manager. I told him I wanted to test three vacuum cleaners
for noise so I need the three and an outlet. He thought my request was odd but
he did grant my request. I purchased the vacuum that to my ears was the
quietest and whose whine was not too high pitched.
It is a Hoover canister. When you use it to vacuum
stairs and you happen to lift it with one hand at the same time, it looses
suction because of loose seals. It has a plastic hose that kinks. If you do not
notice this there is no suction. The phone rang a few days ago and Rosemary
(who was vacuuming left it on) went to answer it. When she returned it was not
working anymore. I had a suspicion but did nothing to reduce her depression of
having to spend money to buy a new unit.
The electric motor, not getting cooling air
through its core must have had a circuit breaker. The next day the vacuum
worked.
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| Hoover kinking hose - right |
The folks at Hoover who designed the unit did not test the
device with someone who might have arthritis. Changing brushes and messing with
the hose really hurts me. Some idiotic Canadian regulation prevents the chord
for being long enough to perhaps work in a room and the hallway, too.
The worst refrigerator we have ever owned
is our present Sears Kenmore “Special Edition”. Note in the picture here that
the outside has a thin coat of plastic paint that wore quickly and the metal
underneath rusted after exactly one year. Cleaning the drawers and shelves
(with difficult to clean tempered glass) is a chancy thing. The glass must be
removed. Are sinks large enough for it? Did anybody who designed this
refrigerator ever project the problem of having to clean it? Did the Hoover designer ever test
the machine in a normal house?
My iPhone 3G has one longish button that
can go one way or the other by pressing on its ends. This is for adjusting
volume. I find it efficient and simple. My wife’s iPhone 4 has two buttons.
That must be an improvement. Or is it?
My Fuji X-E1 camera like all modern digital
cameras does not promote the connecting of a studio lighting system to it via the
antiquated PC cord connection. The high triggering voltage of some studio
flashes can burn the insides of digital cameras. In order for me to use a
studio flash I had to purchase a safe sync attachment that slips and sits on
the top of the camera’s “hot” shoe. A few weeks back I was attempting to take
pictures with my studio flash but nothing happened. Finally in complete
confusion and frustration I called up my friends at Leo’s Cameras. I was told
after we discussed all the possible problems (a bad PC cord, a failed safe
sync) that somehow my camera was on silent mode (no idea what that really is). On
silent mode my camera will not fire a flash. I cannot imagine the logic behind
this.
My new Craftsman lawnmower replaced another
Craftsman that worked perfectly except the body had rusted and the holes meant
I got small stones hitting me in the face. The chap at Sears immediately knew
of this problem when I said, “My mower works except…”
My new Craftsman has a grass catcher bag
that says Dust Blocker TM –Ez Empty. I rarely use the catcher as mulched grass
when it falls on the lawn returns nitrogen to the soil. I use the catcher when I
want grass clippings to mulch around my hydrangeas (they suffer in the
July/August droughts. When it has rained there is not dust coming out! When it
has not rained I get showered by a fine cloud of dust.
Emptying the catcher is tough. It is no
self-evident and if you have arthritis…
It is my guess if that you own a 2007 Malibu, or a brand new
Rolls Royce and you happen to drop some quarters on the sides of your seat that
you will never ever be able to retrieve them or anything small that might just
make it to the edge of your seat.
In all cases I believe it is a failure of
industrial design. It is a failure of having forgotten that form (design?) follows
function.
