Everyone has a list of things that need to be fixed. There are small things, like styrofoam containers that leak last night’s leftovers all over your desk, and then there are bigger things — the American health care system, for instance. There are potholes and computer glitches and the complexity of online travel bookings, which increasingly seem to require a PhD to understand. And there’s more, much more, from maps that mislead to, well, politicians who do the same. (Good luck fixing them.)
Naturally, big problems generally require big solutions — and even though logic and experience tell us that we should, in truth, not sweat the small stuff, it’s the small stuff that mounts up.
1. Lottery Tickets
A photographer I once knew referred to the purchasing of lottery tickets as "the stupid tax." And indeed it may be: but smart people buy them, too, and are clearly not put off by the fact that they're so hideous-looking — big and bold and bright and so jam-packed with information you can't imagine. (Or maybe you can. But can you imagine designing one?) I suppose if you win it doesn't matter a hoot how garish those color and font choices are, but given the odds stacked against you, the greater likelihood is that you will simply spend an inordinate amount of time looking at them. Ergo: shouldn't they look better?
2. The Hearse
In all honesty, this is no time to suggest introducing design challenges to an industry about to go belly-up: but how is it, in a field that prides itself on innovation, that hearse design does not appear to have advanced one iota since the Eisenhower administration? What, just because you're dead means you can't ride in a good-looking car? And for that matter, what's up with the curtains? The person in question (okay, the corpse in question) is already in a box, so it can't be on account of modesty. Or maybe it's some sick design metaphor that nobody ever questioned — you know, "it's curtains for you!" (Okay. Maybe not.)
3. Monopoly Money
Unrealistic. Not enough zeroes.
4. TV Remote Controls
Annoying. Too many buttons.
5. The State of New Jersey
With apologies to Felix Sockwell, Eric Baker and others — this was sent to us by a friend, who explains, "because you have to drive through it to go anywhere. Like Ohio." Members of my family who will remain nameless (but have been contributors to this site) have been known to drive miles out of their way to avoid it. (No, I am not making this up.)
6. Political Lawn Signs
Where is it written that all political candidates must have lawn signs that are red, white and blue? Are there party rules — or worse, demographic statistics suggesting that people won't venture out to the polls if, say, a candidate were to go with a nice orange sign — something with a burnt sienna background or some nice olive green type? The notion that voters can be swayed by lawn signs is sort of odd to begin with — scaled, as they are, to the height of the average garden gnome — but, assuming they have some intrinsic merit, why the incessant fidelity to the same patriotic palette?
7. Childrens' Ski Jackets
And while we're at it, where is it written that kids' ski jackets have to be so ugly? To have red stripes? To be graced with four thousand pockets that no human fingers can actually pry open? And a detachable hood and lining that you don't dare detach for fear that you'll never remember how to put it back together? Mostly, though, it's the stripes. And the logos, a cross between Hello Kitty and Nascar. And the itchy, fake fur around the hood. (Regrettably, not detachable.) And don't even get me started on lunch box design.
8. Kennedy Airport
Nominated for reasons which are, I think, self-explanatory: runners up include Miami, Philadelphia and Yerevan, Armenia.
9. Blister Packaging
Wrap rage — the ire and injury that comes from struggling with those annoying plastic
blister bubbles — is now an official pathology with its own Wikipedia
page. (Acording to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an average of
6,000 people a year end up in the emergency department for
packaging-related injuries.) But does it take visits to the ER to affect design change? (If this is the case, be afraid: be very afraid.) In happier news, things are looking up for those impatient and/or accident-prone gift enthusiasts: following the lead begun by Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, companies like Fisher-Price, Mattel and even Microsoft are participating in a new initiative called Frustration-Free Packaging. Next up? Frustration-free kids' ski jackets! (Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?)
10. IRS Forms
Though given a significant face-lift in the early 1980s by the designers at Siegel and Gale, tax forms are as dreary as they are dense: indeed, the very act of filing taxes remains an inescapably grim milestone of early winter. On the bright side, at least they're not set in Comic Sans.
Which raises an important question about design and redesign: not to denigrate the importance of function (or even to suggest that what things look like and how they perform are mutually exclusive) but if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, just how many beholders do you actually have to get before you redesign something? In truth — with economic belt-tightening the order of the day, and much more critical world problems deservedly pulling focus — redesigning lottery tickets because they're visual eyesores is unlikely to galvanize change any time soon. Nevertheless, yearning for beauty remains a fundamental human need. (Designers, it would appear, possess this human need in spades.) As John Cage once observed, "the first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is: why do I think it's not beautiful? And very shortly you discover that there is no reason."
And while we're at it, where is it written that kids' ski jackets have to be so ugly? To have red stripes? To be graced with four thousand pockets that no human fingers can actually pry open? And a detachable hood and lining that you don't dare detach for fear that you'll never remember how to put it back together? Mostly, though, it's the stripes. And the logos, a cross between Hello Kitty and Nascar. And the itchy, fake fur around the hood. (Regrettably, not detachable.) And don't even get me started on lunch box design.
8. Kennedy Airport
Nominated for reasons which are, I think, self-explanatory: runners up include Miami, Philadelphia and Yerevan, Armenia.
9. Blister Packaging
Wrap rage — the ire and injury that comes from struggling with those annoying plastic
blister bubbles — is now an official pathology with its own Wikipedia
page. (Acording to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an average of
6,000 people a year end up in the emergency department for
packaging-related injuries.) But does it take visits to the ER to affect design change? (If this is the case, be afraid: be very afraid.) In happier news, things are looking up for those impatient and/or accident-prone gift enthusiasts: following the lead begun by Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, companies like Fisher-Price, Mattel and even Microsoft are participating in a new initiative called Frustration-Free Packaging. Next up? Frustration-free kids' ski jackets! (Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?)
10. IRS Forms
Though given a significant face-lift in the early 1980s by the designers at Siegel and Gale, tax forms are as dreary as they are dense: indeed, the very act of filing taxes remains an inescapably grim milestone of early winter. On the bright side, at least they're not set in Comic Sans.
Which raises an important question about design and redesign: not to denigrate the importance of function (or even to suggest that what things look like and how they perform are mutually exclusive) but if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, just how many beholders do you actually have to get before you redesign something? In truth — with economic belt-tightening the order of the day, and much more critical world problems deservedly pulling focus — redesigning lottery tickets because they're visual eyesores is unlikely to galvanize change any time soon. Nevertheless, yearning for beauty remains a fundamental human need. (Designers, it would appear, possess this human need in spades.) As John Cage once observed, "the first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is: why do I think it's not beautiful? And very shortly you discover that there is no reason."
Comments [83]
01.14.09
01:05
http://stuff.tv/csfiles/blogs/sport/asics-gel-kinsei.jpg
01.14.09
01:36
Many if not most of us use TurboTax, TaxCut or some other digital means, and only see the form if we choose to export it that way.
A candidate for the "end of print" category?
01.14.09
01:56
01.14.09
02:04
01.14.09
02:06
Check these out:
http://ilovemylifethewayitis.com/
01.14.09
02:09
01.14.09
02:16
01.14.09
02:22
The nutrition facts label could use an update.
Bus schedules and maps. Those things are horrid to figure out.
Manga publishers Tokyopop need all of their design software taken away and given to those more capable.
What would a classy lottery ticket look like, by the way?
01.14.09
03:29
01.14.09
03:38
And regarding the Hearse, maybe you haven't done your research? http://www.hearse.com/sales/new/pages/landau_coach.html
Looks redesigned to me.
01.14.09
03:58
Next: OSD for TV/DVD players. Why did I just spend a couple grand on something that looks like I just started my TRS80 when I go to configure the audio?
You can always tell Japanese designed A/V electronics by their love of extra buttons and the seemingly random placement the button groups get on the face of your new receiver. Gladly, good menus and OSD are catching up here. There's always MacIntosh.
01.14.09
04:06
Lottery tickets are hit or miss for me.
01.14.09
04:10
01.14.09
04:22
(I can remember picking out jackets exactly like those when I was younger, because I liked the bright colors. "Design consciousness" would have led me to be too embarrassed to even consider wearing jackets like these.) ( I like the sensation of riding in the car with my family, so I don't really mind being lost for an extra hour or two.)
I'm thankful for visual aesthetics that are always counter-intuitive to the current design trends. It would be awful to wake up one day and have the world feel like it belonged in a Target commercial.
And plus I think Monopoly money looks tight.
01.14.09
04:33
I don't know about the money from Monopoly, but I have to say that I love the property cards - and have used them as influence to design a couple of invites. I generally purchase the railroads because I think they're the nicest-looking deeds.
01.14.09
04:44
01.14.09
05:28
Very funny observations, all airports should be included, except those small island hopping ports in Hawaii and some foreign resort destinations... you're just so glad to be there, a cavity search is incidental.
01.14.09
05:50
Rain pants/chaps.
Bicycle helmets.
Lower back tattoos (oh wait, they just aren't a trend anymore).
Not to be redesigned - perfect as they are (like lottery tickets):
Claw vending machine dolls.
Gogurt packaging.
Cabela's store layout.
Gem sweaters.
01.14.09
07:00
(I thought the article was very funny)
01.14.09
07:03
I like kids' jacket and tv remote. When I was very young, a remote is the first thing that makes me realize someone designed it to be as easy to use as possible. It is my first acknowledged experience with design.
My closest friend from design school forced his dad to return HDTV from LG simply because every time he watches a movie he will have to look at that human face logo. I didn't buy the very nice design LG's Chocolate phone a couple of years back because of this reason also. To me, that logo needs to be redesigned.
01.14.09
07:27
Someone, somewhere, gets PAID to design these.
01.14.09
08:12
Maybe the lottery tickets are just the way they need to be. In the greater Western PA area, they use a animatronic groundhog to sell PA Lottery tickets...not because it's a good idea...but rather because its wrong on a few different levels that people here simply respond to. I'm not saying it's right...it just is...and if it works? Well, you get the gist.
Thanks for the great list anyway!
01.14.09
10:21
01.14.09
10:31
The superior Australian product is aptly called "squeeze mates" and you just pinch the two ends together. Sheer genius.
01.14.09
11:16
01.14.09
11:18
So it's in your way as you rush off to Ohio? Are you seriously pitching Ohio as more desirable than NJ?
01.14.09
11:33
so are these your new year's resolutions, ms. helfand?
01.14.09
11:40
01.14.09
11:46
And I think children's ski jackets are fine the way they are.
Although it would be really funny to see a 10 year-old going down a slope in a black peak-lapel cashmere chesterfield coat.
01.15.09
02:23
But you know, lottery tickets won't be ever good-looking than now - because their appearence indicates that 1) they're impossible 2) they're rubbish. Impossible - you know, you can hardly win, but you think you're special, so you buy them. Rubbish - that when you lose, you just through them away, that all.
But imagine, you win - do you want to spend some of this money making lottery tickets look better? I think no - that's why when you don't need something good-lookng, there's no need to spend money on it. And design of lottery tickets is cheap and functional - because design doesn't implies making something beautiful, but something useful.
01.15.09
02:42
NYC has no business being in the same state that BORDERS CANADA.
01.15.09
07:40
01.15.09
09:15
I do wonder what a redesigned lottery ticket might look like. Lottery tickets are like truck stops in Arkansas... they're so far out, strange, ugly, gaudy and bizarre that I wouldn't change a thing.
01.15.09
09:34
(Why can't they all be like the Apple remote: 1 button controlling an OSD?)
01.15.09
10:10
01.15.09
10:54
01.15.09
11:45
01.15.09
11:56
1. create a new game concept - and include visual hints about how you're always almost winning
2. brand it
3. explain how to play it, in the simplest possible terms, in absolutely bulletproof language
4. AND find a way to include all the legalese about odds of winning. Often, there are instructions about how to play another game, the second-chance drawing, on the back. And that includes a form to fill out!
That's some serious design work there. And that's leaving out all the math and probability of the game itself, which I assume is handled by economists in thick glasses.
01.15.09
12:05
itc_james
01.15.09
12:24
This was the problem I encountered when redesigning a 1040 for a school project. A great number of problems arose because tax forms refer to each other on a line by line, box by box basis, so to redesign them, you must redesign the whole system of annotation and tabulation. There is also something to be said for user familiarity: CPAs know just where to put the number of miles you drove for work related purposes. Why force them to learn where to find it all over again?.
See my redesign here
and presentation I gave to my class on on my rational here
01.15.09
12:44
01.15.09
12:45
thx | mhs
01.15.09
01:10
there is an intersection where 78 meets the 1 & 9, Garden State Parkway and a few others (it's the worst) coming from Manhattan. How my friends ever make it out here I will never know but I'd love to redesign it. In fact, I would kill to redesign all of the signage in New Jersey simply to draw a few more creative types to Maplewood, the safe haven. THere aren't many small progressive townships like Maplewood (aside from South Orange, Mont Claire is too big).
This week we are designing routes and methods for our new local food co-op for the neighborhood. John Gall, I'm looking at you pal... and Andy Berndt too.
01.15.09
01:29
01.15.09
01:30
Are you badmouthing New Jersey... Home of Philip Roth, Yogi Berra, Frank Sinatra, Tony Soprano AND Bruce Springsteen???
What about: Joseph Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon I, lived for 17 years in the South Jersey town of Bordentown.
You BETTER WATCH it!
E.
01.15.09
01:43
T
01.15.09
02:53
But for some reason, you just... can't... ignore... New Jersey. It attracts you. You are the moth and New Jersey is the flame. You love it. You hate yourself for loving it. If New Jersey was a woman, you would bad mouth her to all of your friends, talk about how she was beneath you. But you love coming home to her.
And those people! How are they still ALIVE!!! How do they MANAGE! Those savages! They are not like your home state. They are ANIMALS! They violate your Purritannical precepts of humanity so thoroughly that you feel dirty just thinking about it, don't you? And then you realize you kinda like the dirtiness of it, the humanity of it, the attitude and the ambition of such a small state jam-packed with so much. 'Why is my state so bland?' you wonder, and then you wonder where that thought came from. Because those people are, indeed, beneath you, but somehow they PERSIST and they INSIST on being EVERYWHERE!!! Oh God.
So you're doomed to go completely Howard Hughes over an entire population of people that don't even know you exist.
01.15.09
03:33
This topic is great and I wish that more people would do the same thing. The first step to fixing a problem is identifying it!
01.15.09
03:45
This topic is great and I wish that more people would do the same thing. The first step to fixing a problem is identifying it!
01.15.09
03:57
I'd agree that the Sydney airport could use a design bailout.
01.15.09
04:49
-d
01.15.09
06:31
Jon. Bon. Jovi.
01.15.09
06:32
G5s: Apple needs to start making slick wood cases for computers.
Don't get me started on the kindle. Looks like something a fed-ex employee hands you to sign your name.
About 50% of anything I design could use a healthy redesign. And absence of client input.
Mossimo Vignelli's website.
There, I said it!
01.15.09
08:39
01.16.09
01:23
The world is not gonna be a better place because a cigarette package got redesigned.
01.16.09
03:04
Next time you're driving through, don't. We don't want haters.
01.16.09
05:44
01.16.09
06:11
01.19.09
08:59
As far a New Jersey is concerned, the only effective way to re-design it is to level the whole place and start over, it may take some time, but I think it will all work out in the end, until the project is over I think the people of Jersey should be sent to Alaska, there is plenty of room up there and somebody should use it.
@Lumedia - I agree on the need to redesign running shoes. They are pretty much the only kind of shoes I buy, and every time I have been to the store lately they have been worse and worse. I am not sure what they need, but they do need work, and soon hopefully
01.20.09
02:22
01.21.09
05:30
01.25.09
06:42
But back to this redesign issue those yards got to go. I have even thought of redesigning them for free just asking them to put my web address on the bottom. Might get some work in the future if they win.
David
Dodos Design
www.DodosDesign.com
01.26.09
02:29
But...I will always love to hate ugly lottery tickets.
01.28.09
11:47
01.29.09
02:40
Posters for 'serious films'. Is Trajan the only typeface allowed in Hollywood?
Advertising for luxury goods. It’s all the same. B&W here, bit of script there, blah blah.
Most Chryslers. Are they deliberately trying to offend?
Baseball sneakers. Big. Ugly. Stupid.
01.30.09
05:45
However, if you're not often below -10C, it won't do much for you.
01.30.09
02:35
03.10.09
08:10
Margaret
http://lotterymegamillions.net
09.03.09
09:03
12.12.09
11:55
12.21.09
06:35
12.29.09
11:28
01.01.10
09:10
Give a girl a bench please.
01.06.10
07:26
01.07.10
10:46
01.19.10
11:03
02.03.10
06:21
02.08.10
01:00
Why not redesign the whole U.S.? Or the "rest of the world"?
Sure, everything is is progress, and designers will be clearly a part of it - and most times it will be better afterwards.
And than, we have to redesign it again. Who am I telling this?
But we still live in a world where designers are not to be asked and the most (all?) people think in terms like "beauty".
First try to change those everage thinking ... than will design have a right chance to do all the necessary redesigns you want!
02.13.10
10:48
06.29.10
09:35
Much like Political Lawn Signs I always shake my head in wonder at who comes up with trashy Real Estate Agents' promotional material. Do these agents design their own stuff? At the very least they should book a professional photo session at a portrait studio. The ad material is junk as well as everything from postcards to lawn signs, business cards to calendars, all of which make it to the top of my "yuk" list of graphic design disasters.
My observation is from Toronto, Canada but I'm certain it's not much better in the US.
07.20.10
02:21
11.11.10
03:07
Lottery tickets, especially the scratch off kind, are designed simply to grab attention, be scratched and turned in and/or thrown away. To redesign these would almost be a waste of time, since they end up in the trash.
With regards to Monopoly money, if your only thought on redesign is more zeros, then I feel you missed the point Hasbro had for the game itself. Monopoly itself has been used to teach children about money. Hasbro referenced the currency of the time, utilizing realistic denominations.
I completely agree with your view on political yard signs. It would be nice to see some variety, in terms of color. Perhaps the color scheme is chosen to help enforce their patriotism.
In regards to the tax forms, I would say the Swiss style is aesthetically pleasing. Especially in the function of the form. I think trying to force a design, would make it more challenging for people to fill out.
04.20.11
08:38