Design pet peeves
 

What's your pet peeve when it comes to design when you travel--in the airport, onboard the aircraft, renting a car or in a hotel? What products are designed in a way that makes you crazy? What are the hassles that industrial designers in the travel sector don't seem to be addressing? (For example, mine is that airplane seats don't have cupholders.) I'm an editor doing research for an article that will query travel industry industrial designers about some pet peeves and whether these pain points will be addressed by design in the future.

Not a pet peeve exactly, but a give-away: if a hotel bathroom has a full wall mirror right behind the toilet, I know it was designed by a woman. :)

(I mentioned this once on a comment card to a Minneapolis hotel - as an observation, not a problem. I got a personal reply from the manager. It read in part "Yes, our bathrooms were designed by a woman - but I don't think I'll tell her how you figured that out!"

NancyB, welcome to FlyerTalk! While on the subject of hotel bathrooms, my design peeve is faucets either arrayed counter-intuitively (hot and cold taps reversed from traditional positions) or unlabelled or unfathomable as to how to even activate the taps. A related one is placing fixtures in baths which don't really fit the allowable space.

I hate hotels that don't have outlets within laptop cord reach of the bed.

I hate cafeteria lines that aren't arranged in a logical fashion. I want to get my drink, then lid and straw. I shouldn't go past the fountain to get a cup, fill the cup, then over the river and through the woods to get a lid and straw.
Arrangement: Cups->Fountain->lids->Straws
Also it should be Tray->plate->food->the later: napkin/plastic ware (after I know what utensils I know)

Anytime I have to back track for anything it wastes time and causes traffic problems...Maybe that's why I only eat at sit down restaurants in airports...no drink problems.

Crew who fill up the first overhead bins since we know the bulkhead people must put anything in them. That means the bulkhead people now have to either hope the people downstream are nice or wait for everyone to deplane to claim their stuff way behind them.

Oh God yes, this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I can't count the number of times I've had to pull the bed out so I could plug in my laptop!

Additionally, why must hotels only provide a three foot ethernet cable? I've taken to packing my own 25' cable for those times when they don't have wi-fi access so I'm not chained to the desk while I work.

My other hotel pet peeve: chains that put up signs declaring you're not allowed to put your own drinks in the mini-bar fridge. I had this happen at the Novotel in Ottawa - I was paying $270/night and I wasn't allowed to use the fridge to store a bottle of juice? Talk about nickel and diming!

Actually, a lot of them do. A more accurate peeve would be that U.S. airline seats don't have cupholders. A lot of foreign ones - perhaps most - do.

My SIN-MEL-SIN flights on Singapore Airlines (SQ) over the past few weeks did, for example. And yes, I was in back. IIRC, it was on the back of the tray table on one flight, next to it on the back of the seat in front of me on the other. In both cases it flipped down for use.

I've also seen hooks on the back of the seat in front where I could hang a jacket or some such. Again, never on a U.S. airline. Can't imagine that either the weight or the cost of these is significant. Maybe nobody has clued them in.

Seat recline is also a perennial issue. SQ, again, does it better than U.S. airlines (in economy; I've read great things about their front cabins but haven't experienced them personally). The base of the seat slides forward when you recline. The result is more recline while impinging less on the passenger behind you.

I also agree with this though not necessarily for my laptop but my cell phone. I often use it as an alarm and a clock thoughout the night and I hate being away from my phone incase "something happens." I'm not convinced when across the room it will still wake me. :mad:

The first few that come to my head include:
-Bathrooms where the door swings so close to the toilet, I have to straddle the toilet before closing the door.
-Poor signage in airports. For instance, at PHL, there are several places where, upon leaving security, you cannot see a sign for the baggage claim easily unless you turn around and look back into security.
-The little drink "dimple" in the tray tables.
-I also have never understood why a boarding pass has to be so big.

That's all for now...I'm sure I'll have plenty more when I get up in the morning! :rolleyes:

Are you sure you want to get us started? Here are a few for now. I will be sure to come up with more as soon as I think about it.

Airports - why do they always have 15 million lanes you have to cross to get to the terminal? Can't they figure out a more logical way to keep all those vehicles organized?

Not everyone arrives to teh airport by taxi. Airports need places for people to wait with their friends and family. Not just drop them off and leave.

For that matter, how about a view of the planes/runway? Lots of people actually like to look at those.

And not everyone who needs a drink or snack is flying - put food service outside the secured area, too.

I personally hate those paper boarding passes. Yeah, I know they are cheap, but they are so flimsy they get all crumpled up and tear too quickly. I would rather have nice small little cards like they use on the trains in Europe.

Whose bright idea is it to have to have everyone take off their shoes, unpack their laptops, etc., and not give these people a place to do it on? Even more so - few airports have adequate enough space for passengers to put their shoes back on and stuff back in their carry-ons.

Wouldn't it make far more sense to have one central desk for every 4 or 5 gates that is continually staffed, than to have one agent tryig to both check boarding passes AND run the desk for no more than 15 minutes before the flight?

Airlines are getting better with overhead bins, but I would love to see them give up one half a row and put in a suitcase closet for people with large rollaboards so they don't have to struggle putting in large cases overhead.

Cabin lighting desperately needs to be improved

As soon as the seat goes any wider, they make the arm rests immovable. Why? Take advantage of that space!

Instead of having to choose betwen a full table and no table, use smaller fold-outs, big enough to hold your drink and package of peanuts or cookies.

Windows are often times terribly placed. Usually too low, and often too far ahead of or behind the seat.

Why are the armrests for the window passenger fixed? It's not like this is going to get in the way. And it's so thin it isn't really useful.

Talking about armrests, why do they place the controls on the inner side of the arm rest? You're sitting there, it's hard to control from there.

Then again it's better than Jet Blue, which you always inadvertently change the channel because you lay your hand across the controls.

Why do hotel rooms insist on so many huge mirrors in bathrooms. Watching yourself sit on the toilet is not a particularly entertaining pastime, I hope.

And please, I know Duvets are nice, but provide a blanket for those of us who don't need that much cover.

Ceiling fans are really nice, too.

Whoever designed safes needs to go back and take another measurement of your typical laptop with a wireless card in it.

I hate hotel bathrooms that never give you enough counter space to put your toiletries. And no place dry to put your clothes when you take a shower and water gets sprayed all over the place. And who thought to put the towel rack inside the shower?

Alarm Clocks need to be clear how to operate. When you are just waking up is not the time to try and figure out how to turn the thing off.

More hotel rooms need comfortable chairs.

Oh, and back to airline seats - the space right in front of your knees is not a great place for storage ie the literature pocket. I think that room could be better used for knees.

I also think it is about time someone investigated better ways of catering, ie the carts and galley.

1) agree on the electrical outlets (for laptops, cell phones, iPod recharge, etc. etc. etc). Another outlet pet peeve, though, is a lack of outlet in a place where you can easily set up the ironing board. Whenever there's a run of 5 feet clear along a wall--to conveniently place the ironing board--you can guarantee there's no outlet nearby. Instead, you end up having to set it up adjacent to the desk or something. It also makes it difficult to leave the ironing board up for more than 1 day--housekeeping will take it down, so you can go through that awkward set-up again the next morning!

2) setting the TV where you can't see it from the desk. I usually have the TV on, as background noise if nothing else, while I'm working at the desk. But sometimes I want to watch the TV *and* work on my laptop. In many places, it can't be done.

3) bathrooms where the towel holding area is farther than an arm's reach
from the shower--it makes you get out and drip water all over the place just to get the towels to dry off.

4) so-called "comfortable" chairs with no table anywhere nearby on which to place a drink, book, etc. The floating chair in the corner of the room doesn't do me a lot of good when I need to drag it next to the nightstand so I don't have to hold my drink in my hand while I'm reading or using my laptop.

My design pet-peeve of all times is not specific to traveling but is relevant: Door handles should make it clear whether it is a "PUSH" door or a "PULL" door. The push door has a bar across the front. The pull door has a handle.

Regarding outlets in hotel rooms, this is a major issue. Rather than having to completely re-do the wall outlets, I would suggest that every light fixture in the room be replaced with one that has an outlet at its base.

Power outlets in hotel rooms already mentioned.

A special pet peeve of mine: Big sinks with small faucets or just small faucets so you can't just wash your hands, you basically have to scoop the water to the front. Just make them a notch higher and longer.

And bath rooms with tubes but without curtain. Okay, do you WANT me to flood that room?
W

Sometimes I'm in an airport between flights, and I just want a little drink of water. Not a liter bottle of designer water, not a paper cup of soda, not a caffeinated beverage, not an ice cream beverage, not fruit juice, not vegetable juice, not an alcoholic beverage, just plain water.

Good luck finding a drinking fountain!

Oh, and on a plane? First and foremost, the seating arrangements: no leg room and having to fight for the arm rest.

Mine are mostly in hotels:

Outlets in easy reach, for laptops, phone rechargers, and irons - has already been mentioned.

Also, a huge pet peeve that has already been mentioned - set up the desk so that you can watch the TV while you work. If I'll be staying a couple days, the first thing I always do it rearrange the hotel room furniture. So many of them have the desk off to the side of the TV, or you sit at the desk with your back to the TV.

Alarm clocks that you can't figure out - like others in the thread, I've taken to using my Treo for my alarm, so that I don't have to figure out the hotel room clock, but I always check it because I've been awoken in the middle of the night too many times by alarms that I didn't set.

Make sure the TV remote allows for "sleep" programming, so that you can fall asleep with a little background noise, but have it shut off itself.

Make sure how you switch from tub to shower water stream is obvious. a couple places I've stayed have a funny little ring around the opening of the tub faucet that you have to push up or pull down to switch the stream up to the shower head.

Stacks of towels on a towel rack in the shower with you. Seems like they all can get damp really easily, and I wonder if the bottom ones get changed or just sit there and mildew.

That's all my tired brain can come up with for now.

I'll highlight the positive instead of the negatives. As a frequent international traveller, I really like hotels that build multiple plugs (US, UK, European) into their desks. Saves me having to carry loads of adapters.

- Footrests in C class on TG A330's, which were apparently designed for people no taller than 5 ft.

- and kill the person who designed touch-screen tv's for the back of seats, so you can constantly have your seat banged by the ADD passenger behind you!

I always wondered if my poking at the screen was bothering anyone..

That said, it's funny to note that many of the airport complaints aren't problems at my home airport. It even has water fountains and observation decks outside the secure area. Go Tampa!

My pet peeves:

That strange amoeba-like pattern that ends up beings on nearly everything that will get heavy use. From carpet to cushions to wallpaper. Barely visible little blob patterns in a blue on a grey - you know you've seen it. It's meant to hide stains and such not being a flat color but really is just ugly.

"Floating" door stops that are meant to keep the door from hitting the wall. More often then not i step on it or stub my toe.

Mirrors on closet doors that the room door opens toward (hence the door stop). Whose bright idea was that?

Tiny trashcans. Not just small, but weird shapes too. We all only throw away 8.5x11 paper in our hotel room right?

Bad paintings of children - creepy. Bad paintings of seascapes and boats - just ugly.

At the airport - individual seats with no armrest-less seats. Those airports are wonderful (sarcasm) if you are stranded.

This one has a reason. Window locations are part of the aircraft design. Interior accommodations, including seat pitch, are chosen by each airline. Seat positions along the fuselage therefore vary - and may change a few times over the years that an aircraft is in service. It is impossible for the windows to line up with the seats in every case.

My #1 pet peeve on non-US airlines: lack of individual air vents. :mad:

Are you referring to that runway at AMS? ;)

You desperately need the Linksys WTR54GS Wireless-G Travel Router with SpeedBooster. I absolutely LOVE mine! As a bonus, if you have more than one "trusted" computer (i.e. a spouse or colleage) within a few rooms of you, you can pay once and all of you can share the hotel's internet connection. It even does a wireless <-> wireless connection so that if the hotel only offers wireless, you can still use it for protection and connection sharing.

I HATE shower heads that are too low. Nothing worse than knocking my shoulder or head on the shower head when I'm taking that early morning shower. I'm only 5'10" - there are lots of people taller than me so I know I can't be the only one but this happens more often than not. An easy resolution are the adjustable ones that I often see in Europe.

I also want more plugs in hotel rooms. I want to be able to work on my laptop and have my mobile phone plugged in at the same time. I want a plug near the bed so I can charge the phone over night and use the alarm clock function - I don't want to have to jump across the room to turn off the alarm.

Hair dryers that are attached to the wall but the cord is too short to see yourself in the mirror as you dry. You know that was designed by a man ;)

I also don't want the hairdryer than you have to keep your finger pressed on the button to keep it drying. Makes it hard to style your hair, and my finger gets really tired as I dry my hair.

I don't like hotel doors that don't have chains or other type of deadbolt - it's a safety thing

i want a visible "departures" monitor mounted in every bar and restaurant in every airport in the world. i want to know if my flight is delayed so that maybe i can order that second beer or perhaps desert. is this too much to ask. please... PRETTY PLEASE...

Dare I ask you to explain this correlation? :confused:

Someone sticking their chewed up gum in the seat pockets

Just use a watch to set up alarm 20 minutes before departure thats what I always do.

Very few men want to watch themselves urinate.

Beat me to it! Almost exactly the words I would have chosen, too. (The last one is the same.)

... I love you and want to have your FT babies. I had no idea such a product exists! I'm buying one this weekend.

That is SO disgusting.

Agreed on the departures clocks all over the place. I hate having to leave the restaurant/bar to find one.

Additionally: why are so many air terminals completely separate? If I go into terminal A, why can't I have drinks in the lounge I like in terminal B?

I agree that alarm clocks that are easy to figure out, showers that are obvious to work, etc. are high on my list. Bathroom doors you can close without becoming a contortionist are nice as well.

How about airplane trays that are flat all the way 'down'? Some of us have long legs or big bellies - and a tray that isn't flat is about useless. If it is on a pivot, it can be flat without being all the way in my belly.

Another vote for the armrest near the window going up. Come on, folks - we want to rest and lean on the side - that armrest is just painful.

And can we not make the bathrooms on airplanes big enough to stand in??? Is that such a terrible thing?

Especially if that floating doorstop is a couple of inches from the bathtub, midlength. It gets covered when you put down the bathmat and when you step out and onto it -- youch! (instead, how about a bumper on that precious hollow-core bathroom door?)

I hate not having a place to hang things in the bathroom -- how about double hooks on the door, hooks next to the sink for handtowel and toiletry bag.

On the rare occasion that I actually want to use the toiletries it's frustrating to find slow-running lotions in nicely designed bottles that are too stiff to squeeze product from the container.

And really, what's with those precious little paper coasters for the water glass, the toiletries carefully arranged on a pedestal (and rearranged every morning after I've moved them to make way for my stuff)? I suppose it provides some assurance that housekeeping has been through but it's pointless form over function.

My all time #1 travel design peeve
 

The 'don't steal me' hangers in many hotels followed by the 'dont steal me' hair dryer previously mentioned, especially those w/short cords.

I don't want to steal the $&*#@)$ hangers-I just want to be able to hang something over the curtain rod in the bathroom to steam the wrinkles out (see previous posts re: difficulty ironing in a hotel due to poor design of wall outlets to plug in the irons) or just while I'm getting dressed!! :mad:

Here's another design element that reminded me of a "funny, but kinda sad too" story. My Mom has Alzheimer's and I took her on a flight to my nephew's college graduation a couple weeks ago. Longish couple flights, BHM to MSP, via ORD. I'll leave out all of her confusion about why we were in Chicago when we wanted to be in Minneapolis, but on one of the flights home, she needed to go to the rest room. Seatbelt lights are on, and it's a little regional jet from ORD to BHM. We went back to the little bathroom in the back, with the pocket door. I slid it shut and guarded it, since she didn't have enough faculties to know to lock the door. She did her business and we went back to our seats. It's sometimes hard for her to manage her clothes, as well as standing up from a seated position, so I told her what a good job she did! She said, "Yes, but it sure was dark in there." It was at that moment that I remembered that the light doesn't come on til you lock the door. Well that burst my bubble. So I would classify that as a design issue for the traveling elderly.

Or maybe IND?

I actually carry a small plastic hanger in the flat back pocket of my roll-aboard for this exact reason.

I'm sure one of the FA's who frequent this site can chime in, but I'm pretty sure those doors can both be locked & unlocked from the outside, so if you're traveling w/Mom in the future, ask the FAs about that before she goes in so she can, hopefully, have an illuminating experience next time.

Another pet peeve of mine when it comes to hotel TV remotes is the lack of a "last" button. When you happen to find 2 things on at the same time that you want to watch and want to go back to the previous channel a "last" button is incredibly helpful when in a place where you don't know the channels.

Personally, I kinda like the "drive in the country" feeling you get on the way to that runway. A chance to see the countryside, sort of.

As for MY all-time biggest pet peeve, what I REALLY can't stand is the way that Airbus aircraft have the row numbers displayed down low where anyone over about 5' 10" has to stoop to read them.

Not really a pet peeve but an idea:

For rental cars, they should put a little arrow on the left or right side of the rear-view mirror telling you which side the gas tank is on.

Most newly manufactured cars now have such an arrow next to the gas-pump icon labeling the gas gauge.