Bad designs have real consequences. I’ve lost my groceries and almost lost my bank card because of — well, bad designs.

The Train Seats

Living in Toronto, I rely on the TTC subway to travel around the city. After boarding the train, I always try to avoid Seat A and B next to the window, which are shown in the following picture. Why? Let me explain.

I avoid Seat A and Seat B when traveling on the TTC.

As you can see, there’s little leg room between Seat B and C. Sitting on Seat B apparently won’t be very comfortable, but there are two bigger problems here. Firstly, placing Seat C so close to Seat B and making it perpendicular to Seat B create an affordance for people to put their feet on it, turning it into a perfect leg rest, which leads to hygiene problems and reduced usage of Seat C. It won’t be hard for you to find people doing just that on the train.

The placement of Seat B and Seat C turns Seat C into a perfect leg rest. Online picture.

There’s a panel in front of Seat B when it’s near priority seats. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TTCSubwayPrioritySeating.jpg

Secondly, because Seat B is uncomfortable to sit on, and because when it’s near priority seats, there’s a panel in front of it to help create a little corner, Seat B in this case has become a perfect spot for putting bags and other belongings. (There tends to be less traffic on the TTC subway compared to, for example, the mass transit systems in Asia.) So, I once found myself sitting on Seat A, placing my groceries on Seat B, only to realize that I’d left them on the train after getting off. This happened to me not just once, but twice. The first time, I got back my groceries with the help from station staff. The second time, I didn’t try to do that because I couldn’t be bothered to go through the whole lost-and-found process again. Because of these two experiences, I never sit on Seat A or B from then on.

A poor design of train seats can make you not only feel uncomfortable, but also lose your belongings.

The ATM

Recently, I tried to get some cash from an ATM in mainland China. Because mobile payment was so popular there, getting cash out of an ATM wasn’t something I needed to do very…