Well Designed Stuff is hard to find

**Zak33** · 06-10-2007, 03:38 PM

In the last few months I have noticed Good and Bad Design.

Why?

Cos some stuff sold for babies/toddlers is so badly designed it makes me shudder.

Other stuff is amazing.

Push chairs for example. Ones that hold Car Seats, and you can then use as a push chair when littlun is older.

The Mothercare versions were deisnged by a person with a brain the size of a pea. And they weigh a ton. The do benefit from large, infratable tyres, and cos there's only three wheels, are very manouvreabe. But ...once you've folded it for the boot of the car, it won't stand upright while you open the boot. You ca't even lean it on the car cos the wheels stop it from standing securely. Even with the brake on.

But the Britax one, 4 wheels, folds to 2/3 the size, weighs less, and stands on it's own, so that when it's raining, if it falls over, it doesn't get covered in mud and dirty water.

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Baby high chairs for feeding.

Now THIS is a shower of dog excrement. If anyone wants to spend a funny 20 minutes, go to Mothercare and ask the sales people to show you how to fold all the High Chairs up. It's a miracle of entertainment, nothing funnier, not even Jeremy Clarkson on a roll.

And then I spotted an absolute corker, that, while it was fully erected, I just KNEw wuld fold up flat. I could SEE it would...it was 100% obvious. And with no guidelines or instructions, I folded it, with one squeeze of a handle and ..there.....flat as a pancake, 1/4 the size of the one the Sales Girl; was tagled up in. Design.
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Wolfking Gaming Keyboard. USB, plugs in at any time, gives me loads of buttons in the right place, helps me play my favourite GRAW game, and then, unplugd and slots into my book shelf. Heavenly design.
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Bosch Garden shredder. Smaller than I expected, quiter than I expected, shredded all my small garden branches, plant growth, into the finest crumb-sized particles which got dug back into the soil and are rotting now making good compost. BUT...proving that Bosch know what's happening on stuff like this, I opened it up to see if it needed cleaning, and the blade comes off in 10 seconds, and I sharpened it on my grinder for next season. Design.
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Ikea sofa bed. Had it for years now, been in the spare room in both houses, and having slept on it to practice, can safely say it's nice. Also a very nice sofa, and I've just sat on it for an hour playing Need For Speed on my Game Cube.

Fold up easily, sprung bedding, and still made so new covers are easy to get to change the room's decoraton. Design.
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Have you got anything that is simply well designed?

staffsMike · 06-10-2007, 04:05 PM

I'm sure you would agree.. my Ignis Sport

So good i've now got a spare haha.

Now that you mention Ikea..those poang chairs. I don't know why..but they are just so comfortable. I pretty much lived in it for my second year of uni. Doesn't fold away or anything special like that..but it also doesn't snap whatever you do to them

**Zak33** · 06-10-2007, 04:14 PM

good one Mike we also have a Poang and it is lovely to sit in.

It's in the way though....we don't need it anymore.

and SO it's currently not my favourite piece of design

rastamanblues · 06-10-2007, 04:22 PM

Ive got quite alot of ikea stuff in my room, desk bookcases etc etc and must say I think most ikea stuff would fall under the well designed catagory!

and on the bad design front, its very generic I know, but the plastic packadging everything comes in! you know where what ever uv brought e.g xbox control, or even a print cartridge is sealed in its own coffin of plastic!

Subsiquently about an hour later, im usually bleeding alot, and have snapped a few kitchen knives!

staffsMike · 06-10-2007, 04:35 PM

You're right. I do believe satan himself designed that plastic packaging.

rastamanblues · 06-10-2007, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by staffsMike

You're right. I do believe satan himself designed that plastic packaging.

I know what makes it worse I discovered earlier, is if you look on the back there is a dotted line with a pic of scissors, I tried using a big pair of kitchen ones, and I almost broke my thumb and it got through about an 8th of the thing!

steve threlfall · 06-10-2007, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by rastamanblues

I know what makes it worse I discovered earlier, is if you look on the back there is a dotted line with a pic of scissors, I tried using a big pair of kitchen ones, and I almost broke my thumb and it got through about an 8th of the thing!

blister packaging, terrible stuff

And it looks bad if you need to return something.

schmunk · 06-10-2007, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by Zak33

Push chairs for example. Ones that hold Car Seats, and you can then use as a push chair when littlun is older.

The lady in John Lewis pushed us away from this - we were going to buy a Silver Cross 'travel system', but apparently the baby shouldn't sit in a car seat for more than a couple of hours, so it's not a good thing to use the car seat as the pram seat.

So instead, we're getting a "flippin' 'eck - how expensive????!?!??" Bugaboo (although it does look great and we're not paying for it!), which has a lie-flat pram as well as a pushchair.

Originally Posted by Zak33

Baby high chairs for feeding.

And then I spotted an absolute corker

Which one is this? I'm in the market for such a thing!

schmunk · 06-10-2007, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by steve threlfall

blister packaging, terrible stuff

Agreed - awful, awful, awful...

finlay666 · 06-10-2007, 06:46 PM

I hate blister packaging too, I prefer to buy cardboard as I find it easier to recycle too (Like the sennheiser eco friendly packaging option on the CX300 you can get from Amazon)

Behemoth · 06-10-2007, 07:07 PM

Blister packiaging, great for the retail trade, how to tell when a customer is lieing when they say that they are returning hteitem as they didn't want it as it was bought for them and they haven't used it, funny then how come it's been slashed open ?? And half the bits are hanging out the packaging.

It its a nightmare though that stuff, I hate it with a passion, I'm always narked when I buy something and it's blister packed.

IBM · 06-10-2007, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by schmunk

The lady in John Lewis pushed us away from this - we were going to buy a Silver Cross 'travel system', but apparently the baby shouldn't sit in a car seat for more than a couple of hours, so it's not a good thing to use the car seat as the pram seat.

So instead, we're getting a "flippin' 'eck - how expensive????!?!??" Bugaboo (although it does look great and we're not paying for it!), which has a lie-flat pram as well as a pushchair.

Which one is this? I'm in the market for such a thing!

You can have our Bugaboo.....the works, baby cot, baby seat, cover, the padded travel bag, and even that little trailer at the back if you have another older kid....They're too much money though. We made more use of our £25 mothercare Mclaren ripoff than the bugaboo (although it's incredible during the wintertime to keep the kid warm)

And as for baby high chair, we got one of these. Doesn't fold up, but looks about as cool as it gets....

schmunk · 06-10-2007, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by ibm

And as for baby high chair, we got one of these. Doesn't fold up, but looks about as cool as it gets....

I've admired those (or similar) in John Lewis - they're hella expensive though...

**Zak33** · 06-10-2007, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by schmunk

Which one is this? I'm in the market for such a thing!

Cosatto On the Move
http://www.mothercare.com/gp/product...62041&mcb=core

Ebay.. £22

And as for kids not sitting in car seatsforover 2 hours.....yup...I understnad your worries, but my mum and dad live 4 hours away, and I aint stopping....not if the traffics clear.

The boy was fine in his.

**joshwa** · 06-10-2007, 10:50 PM

The wife wants one of these:
http://www.stokke.com/functionality....nr=01&p=Xplory

Our high chair is a lot like yours Zak - it's great. But I've seen some cloth high chairs - and they're AWFUL - after 6 months they grow mould all over them! YUK!

M0nkeyb0Y · 06-10-2007, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by joshwa

The wife wants one of these:
http://www.stokke.com/functionality....nr=01&p=Xplory

Our high chair is a lot like yours Zak - it's great. But I've seen some cloth high chairs - and they're AWFUL - after 6 months they grow mould all over them! YUK!

Ahh Stokke! - I'm with you there mate: check out this high chair - our eldest has had it nearly four years, just take the seat and foot rest lower every six months, and she's all good - it'll last until she needs it as a bar stool I dare say.