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.
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!
A Design Crime – How Not To Design A Connector
This is the connector to get power and my computer connected to my Samsung Galaxy S5.

How Not To Design A Connector
Note the flimsy cover that clips over the orifice.
I doubt that it’ll last the life of the phone.
There is no excuse for crap design! Except perhaps in a piece of sit-upon sanitary ware!
Isn’t it about time, that all mobile devices had the same power connections?
A Design Crime – A Badly-Designed Handrail
I noticed this hand rail on a new Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 double-deck bus.
The supports for the handrail mean that you can’t slide your hand up the rail, as you climb the stairs. The supports too are square, with unnecessary sharp corners.
When you have a hand with limits to what it can do, you want the rail to be as smooth as possible. This is only one example of several that I’ve encountered on London’s transport system. Some of the worst examples are on steps into the Underground.








