25 Baffling Design Fails From This Week That Are Hard To Believe (January 19, 2026)
Every bad design had multiple approval stages. Someone designed it. Someone else approved it. Maybe a committee reviewed it. Everyone agreed this was fine. That’s what makes bad design so baffling. Not accidents. Intentional choices that make no sense.
These are the most baffling design choices from this week. Approved by actual people somehow.
1. “These stairs at my cabin vacation feel designed to **** you”
2. “The buttons to change temp on my fridge”
3. “Because potty training needs more splatter-producing elements.”
4. “Sweet home home!”
5. “The math on the back of this cereal box, is the polar opposite of the truth”
6. “This ‘sink’ in my Swedish hotel room.”
7. “Shower in the bedroom – Vancouver BC rental”
8. “Not a good design”
9. “I’m no dogologist but…”
10. “Why put meltable plastics on a Thing that gets hot?”
11. “Someone has definitely pissed in these sinks before.”
12. “This was not a fun experience.”
13. “Crappy world map in a store at the Cebu City airport”
14. “Maze on Pizza Hut’s kids menu. My son’s solution and their solution”
15. “This TV that is way too far from the bed and obscured by the wardrobe @ a Scotland Hotel”
16. “The dice shaker that comes with Yahtzee is exactly two dice wide and has an internal edge that the dice constantly get stuck behind.”
17. “I feel like this was near the top of bad battery brand names when you go to choose a name.”
18. “Packaging design that doesn’t anticipate human nature”
19. “My pants pockets are only as deep as the bottom of the opening, so anything I put in them will fall out”
20. “This restroom layout at my local legion.”
21. “The pre-cutting on the paper Lego bags is pointless.”
22. “A beauty place for Mike Wazowski and his family”
23. “What good is the design if the words aren’t legible?”
24. “Basically a spy window”
25. “What wonderful and legible instructions”
