What Idiot Designed This Obstable Course?
I came across this awful set of street design, as I walked across Manchester.
It’s one of the most elderly and disabled-unfriendly pieces of street design I’ve seen in recent months. If I found out who designed it, I will send him a strong and alnost abusive letter, giving him a large piece of my mind.
Before Crossrail – Maryland
Another Station That Needs Imagination And Lifts – Rating 2/10
Maryland is another ruin, but it is not as bad as Manor Park and it doesn’t have any redeeming feature like Forest Gate‘s kiosk.
In fact one of the best things that could happen to the three stations, is that a driverless Class 66 ran away with a heavy cargo of something like aggregate and careered through all the stations demolishing them completely.
What worries me about this station is that somebody was paid to design it and another was paid to build it, probably at great expense.
But look at this page to see Crossrail’s ideas about transforming the station.
Before Crossrail – Manor Park
A Ruin With Serious Issues – Rating 1/10
Manor Park is very unusual architecturally. I do wonder if the Luftwaffe tried to demolish the station.
Perhaps the builders just ran out of money and couldn’t afford to put in windows.
I can imagine the words of Crossrail’s architect, when he saw this station. According to Wikipedia, in their section on Future Development they say this.
The platforms will not be lengthened so selective door operation will be used instead, allowing the freight loop to remain in use. Due to the narrow platforms, and the layout of the station, fitting lifts for disabled access would be difficult and expensive, requiring the walkways to be rebuilt and closing the station for several months.
If there was a Carbuncle Cup For Ruins, then this station would be up there with the worst.
Perhaps though Crossrail’s architect is a supreme optimist.
Look at this artists’s impression of what is a proposal for the future on Crossrail’s web site.
A Design Crime – What Moron Designed This?
To get back from Woolwich today, I decided to take a train from Woolwich Arsenal station.
What Moron Designed This?
The picture shows the fountain I walked into, as there were no visual clues and it looked like a wide free area leading to the station.
Luckily, I was wearing sensible walking shoes, which didn’t leak.
But you can see my wet footprints.
Obviously Woolwich loves crap design and has created a real Design Crime.
And The Winner Is!
This dreadful building called Woolwich Central won the Carbuncle Cup 2014.
Woolwich Central
You do wonder about Tesco, in that two buildings on the shortlist were their supermarkets.
Perhaps, the previous CEO was architecturally-challenged.
A Design Crime – A U/S Building
It is a common term amongst engineers, that might by used by others too, to describe something as U/S or useless or unserviceable. There’s a discussion about the use of the abbreviation here.
So I was surprised to see this building with a big uS sign on it.
But it probably deserved it, as it was on the short-list for the Carbuncle Cup 2014.
I’ve tagged this with Crap Marketing, as who’d want to lve in a uS building?
A Design Crime – Why I Didn’t Buy Another Pair Of DAKs Trousers
For the last twenty-five years, I’ve had a pair of DAKs cord trousers for when I need to be smart. Last year, I bought a replacement pair and they were fine.
The original pair were still comfortable and warm and I wore them on my holiday in Iceland. I unfortunately ripped them on something, so there was only one place for them – the bin!
So I thought I’d buy another pair and went to their shop.
But what a disappointment!
They’ve been designered and now there are three buttons to do the trousers up. With my gammy hand that is a no-no! Or imagine getting taken short and wanting to disrobe quickly.
It’s almost as bad as the dreaded button-fly!
I went elsewhere!
Bad Sign Layout At Piccadilly Circus
It’s not often that the London Underground gets its signage wrong.
Bad Sign Layout At Piccadilly Circus
But they have here, as you can’t see the train indicator, as it’s positioned behind the Way Out sign!
My New Crap Design Tag
The new WordPress screen has resulted in my bringing in a new Crap Design tag. Click the tag on this post to see the design horrors.
Doing this was not as easy as it used to be, due to WordPress’s new editor design!
So is it back to the future with WordPress?
How Do You Get Rid Of The Beep Beep Boop Screen On WordPress?
Every day, I add my current INR reading to a post in the blog. It is just a simple way to show my results to doctors, dentists and anybody else who needs to know. I’ve also got a couple of researchers looking at the figures for interest, as it shows INR might vary from day to day.
It used to be easy and quick. I just got the page up and then clicked the Edit link on the WordPress toolbar and then the edit screen came up immediately. After typing in the new value, I just clicked Update and that was it.
If I wanted to check the page, I clicked on a View Post link and it replaced edit edit screen. Now it creates another tab in my browser.
What took a couple of seconds now takes a lot longer.
I have better things to do than look at the work of an imbecile.
I suspect the guy who designed this crap was the designer of the chocolate tea-pot.
If my blog wasn’t so big, I’d move it elsewhere!
The Anonymous Widower 