UMO - Boycott Bad Designs Contest'05

How many times a day you've felt some things could just be "slightly" better than they are now?

It may be your wash-basin tap, that tries hard to impersonate gym equipment by being hard and clumsy when you are all sleepy in morning, or it could be your phone bill that poses more intellectual challenge than toughest of the cryptic-crosswords.

We live in a world that is a consequence of conscious or unconscious design decisions made by the manufacturers or designers of the various systems. Most of times these decisions are resultant of hasty time-lines, compromise on quality or just plain ignorance about 'you'- the one who is going to use them.

The UMO-Boycott Bad-Design Contest'05 was organized with the view of calling attention to the bad design in everyday things with the theme : Annoyances with day-to-day things.

Boycott Bad-Design Contest'05 Winners

The following ten entries were chosen as the best submissions for the "Bad design contest"

Details about the above and also the other entries chosen for the exibition for World Usability Day at Hyderabad are displayed below.You can see the details of each entry, vote for it and add your comments to it.

Team-UMO duly acknowledges it's gratitude towards all the participants.

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Boycott Bad-Design Contest'05 Entries Preview

Detergent cakes are ‘actually’ soluble in water. After using it for a while one can actually dip the detergent case into a bucket full of water and you have liquid detergent ready.

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2005 - 11.02.

While watching a 3D movie one has to wear 3D spectacles, which is quite exciting. But what about those who are already having their glasses on.

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2005 - 11.02.

‘Hit and try’ or better call it ‘put and try’! If one forgets to throw away dead batteries right at the first time, then they are sure to be thrown out the next time.

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2005 - 11.02.

A two-way switch can be identified by looking at it, but what about entering a dark room and figuring out whether it has been switched off or the tube itself is gone?

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2005 - 11.02.

This leaf shaped mobile is not comfortable to hold.

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2005 - 11.02.

Switch is a connotation for any on-off situation. The switch here works actually three ways but only two conditions are represented.

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2005 - 11.02.

The fuel indicator of Honda Unicorn bike indicates the value as zero even if there is 2 to 3 liters of petrol left in it.

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2005 - 11.02.

This remote control of a Sanyo projector has very confusing and improper interface which hampers its functioning.

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2005 - 11.02.

World Usability Day was observed across the globe spanning 70 locations in 30 nations where organizations and practitioners engaged in a campaign to create awareness of usability of products and services that we consume on a day-to-day basis. The theme for this event was "Making it Easy".

Usability Matters Organization[UMO] organized this event at hyderabad, on 3rd November,2005 at ISB auditorium. This was among the significant WUD gathering in India. UMO organized a Boycott Bad Design Contest, an International Cortoon contest, and a full day event culminating in World Usability Day.

UMO members who are practitioners of usability from the domain of manufacturing, services, architecture, fashion design and software attended the event and eminent speakers from academicia as well as industry spoke on this occassion.. The hyderabad event centered around the theme ‘Good Design for Better Living’.

See the full event report for details.