BAD Design (CS 355 Design Thinking Applied)


Here is an example of bad design that gets worse the more you look at it. First off, I applaud the school for attempting to separate the recycling from the garbage destined for the landfill. That said, we are trained to visually associate a blue or green bin with recycling and a black bin with garbage. These bins are all gray with small blue font. People on campus with something to throw away usually glance at the bins several milliseconds before deciding which one to use, and looking into these bins you can see the evidence that most people chose incorrectly. If you look at the lids, you will also see that the long, flat lid on the bin for cans and bottles cannot possibly accommodate a bottle or can of any size and the bin for mixed paper contains the most cans and bottles of the three.

For me, the very worst part of this setup is that I noticed the problem two years ago, I brought it to the attention of the school's environmental council last year, and somebody is out there emptying these bins every single day and continues to put the lids on incorrectly like the worst Captain Planet villain in history.

For my example of good design on campus, click here.

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