Life is full of weird and wonderful designs. We've seen plenty of oddities. There is no end of occasions when it's clear that the design of a gadget, gizmo or everyday object clearly hasn't been thought through. The result is a frustrating experience we all loathe.
We're collecting some of the most frustrating and hilarious examples of these fails for you to marvel at.
- Weird and wonderful life-changing technologies from around the world
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Hot hairdryer
This hairdryer runs so hot it melts its own casing. That's a pretty shocking design right there. Also fairly risky using it hoping that melting plastic doesn't drip onto your head while you're drying your hair.
Bathroom signage
Some public places like to use edgy signage for their bathrooms, but good luck working out which one of these is the right one. Are you a llama or a donkey?
Safe sex advice?
These condoms were given out at a school campus to help promote safe sex. We're fairly sure that's some bad advice to go with the sentiment though.
Security gate or ladder?
Although it might look fairly heavy-duty, this security gate isn't going to be particularly effective at keeping people out. After all, it essentially has rungs for your hands and feet if you want to scale it.
False advertising
We're not sure this company thought through the advertising on these doors or maybe if they do sell plenty of non-sliding doors, maybe they should consider rebranding.
It's also a confusing message to send to visitors as well. Are these push-pull doors or will they slide? It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.
Do die safely
Good solid road safety advice here. Do die safely or don't drive safely? We love a good bit of design that makes your head hurt trying to decipher what it means.
Fat forever
What better advert for your local gym than a painful reminder that you'll be fat forever, no matter how hard you try.
Come on in fatty, see if you can lose some weight. We dare you.
Braille fail
This hotel has braille numbering on the room plates to help the visually impaired work out where their room is, but it's buried among a bunch of other nobbly bits on a bumpy surface. Useful.
Volume down
Turn the volume on this laptop down and it suddenly sucks up all the noise in the room. Fancy noise cancellation or lazy icon design?
Batteries and patience required
Isn't it frustrating when you buy a gadget only to discover batteries aren't included? Well, how about this design that goes one step further by requiring three AAA batteries - each with its own compartment that needs unscrewing?
Awesome design school advert
This design school has a fairly confusing advert to get you to join them. "You we'll know show you how to how to design lead".
Perfectly clear. If you enjoy this solid sort of design, we'd recommend checking out this subreddit.
Cruise the net
Cruise the net faster with two mouse wheels. Double the wheels, double the browsing pleasure.
If anything this mouse might be too good. Unless you can find an infinite-scrolling website.
Fashion is out of control
We know that ripped jeans are back in fashion, but this is fairly ridiculous. These "jeans" cost $168 as well. Total value for money.
Glow in the dark clock with no hands?
Apparently, the designer didn't think to make the hands glow in the dark as well. They say even a broken clock is right twice a day, but who knows if this one is right?
Choking/stabbing hazard
How about a lovely birthday badge for your loved one? They're just turning two years old and would love a good badge to help them celebrate.
Oh no, hold on, this badge isn't suitable for children under three years of age. Back to the drawing board.
Over-the-top web admin
This user found they weren't able to browse to a language website on their school's computer system because it was classified as "educational". Fancy trying to learn at school! Unbelievable.
Disabled access
Although many people would probably point out that hardly any trains are wheelchair friendly, we still can't help but admire the utter failure of this disabled access door.
That's quite a steep step people in wheelchairs are expected to negotiate.
An eye-poking cup
This is a promotional cup for a Spiderman movie.
We can't help but think that the design wasn't thought though - try to take a sip and you get poked in the eyes.
Google Assistant strikes again
Google Assistant is always there with helpful answers to your queries, even emergency ones. A tall glass of water is bound to help if you're having trouble breathing.
Upside down peas
This one probably belongs on our list of the worst Photoshoppings of all time, but it's a special design for sure. Take a close look and you'll see the peas on this plate are upside down.
Interactive textbook
This is one is pretty special - a school textbook that includes "interactive" videos and hyperlinks that, of course, do nothing.
Yet the poor student had to pay $200 for the book. Happy learning!
Environmental destroying toilet wipes
These are flushable toilet wipes that can be dropped down to the toilet in the same way as paper.
Only these wipes are harmful to marine life and damage the environment. So perhaps you'd like to think twice?
Egg tray with space for 11 eggs
In this fridge, there's a handy compartment for storing your eggs. It comes with a tray that's perfect for popping them in.
Only it comes with a catch, there's only enough room for 11 eggs. We'd suggest the fridge is trying to tell you you want to cook one.
Dongle life
Apple's dongles and crazy cable situation has been a running joke on the web for quite some time. This one is really out of control though.
Awkward
Well, this is going to be awkward and uncomfortable. Some bathroom designs are highly impractical and this one was certainly not well thought through.
Unusual stairs
We're fairly certain that climbing this staircase you'd be taking your life in your hands. Even more so if you tried to mount the stairs after knocking back a few beers.
No speeding
This speed limit sign is so confusing we'd suggest it's probably easier and safe to just stick to 25 mph all day every day. Except for weekends of course.
Google Assistant fails
Sometimes Google Assistant just isn't as helpful as it could be.
We're sure the system is constantly learning and improving, but when a personal assistant offers useless assistance, what use are they?
Women's jeans
An image of the inside of women's jeans gives you a view of just how bad the pockets are.
Annoyingly sowed to be tiny rather than large enough to be useful.
Buttons
Sometimes what seems like a fine design on the surface can cause problems. Here it's a case of simple colour-coding issues.
Most people would expect green to be enter or confirm and red and yellow to be warning colours. Here though, clear is green for go. Meaning if you just glance you might delete the numbers or letters you've entered.
Don't Never
Poorly thought-out signs are one of our favourite types of design fails. This one is especially good. Reading left to right like a normal Westerner, it reads "Don't never drink and drive. Drive high."
Terrible advice from the wine aisle at the local supermarket.
Dirty floor
These tiles look horribly dirty but in reality, they're stained to look that way.
Very odd design choice for a public establishment where people will regularly be eyeing them with disgust.
Privacy problems
If you like to retreat to the bathroom for privacy then this design is not for you. At least you can easily see if someone is in there though.
Narrow bathroom
If you're a tad claustrophobic then this is not the toilet for you. It's certainly cosy though.
Garage fails
The original poster on Reddit explained just what's happening here. This is "...an elevator garage in Australia that got flooded in a flash flood and automatically lifted for safety reasons."
The car underneath might have been saved, but the one on top very much wasn't.
Space saving
An interesting and dangerous way to save space. We'd imagine clean clothes would end up in the toilet on a regular basis for a start.
Duck!
This person's staircase was so badly thought out that people kept bumping their head when heading down. So they put a picture of a duck there as a warning sign.
GPS fails
Chances are you've heard one story or another about someone paying too much attention to their GPS navigation and ending up driving into a river or making a wrong turn into danger.
Not really the fault of the area they're driving in. But certainly a failure somewhere.
Flooring issues
There are some design fails on this list that will cause problems. But this one is just annoying. The sort of failure that you can't unsee once you've seen it.