Good Design/Bad Design #1

Andy W — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:53:00 GMT

I'm a sucker for a well though out, well executed design. My brother-in-law and I are both engineers, and we like talking about good and bad designs. Usually we lean toward criticizing the bad ones. Apparently other people do too, as there are web sites devoted to it. I don't have a web site, but I have a blog, so here's my first good design/bad design blog.

Topic: ice cubes

Good Design: I love the Arby's "duck turd" ice. [(c)AHW 2008, all rights reserved] An informal poll at the lunch table revealed that others too love the duck turd ice. If you don't know what I mean you'll just have to get some yourself and see what I mean. The ice gets your drink real cold real fast, and as a bonus it's easily crunchable (I like to eat ice, I know, it's bad for my teeth, yadda, yadda...)

Bad Design: The ice that comes out of about every home ice maker. Who designed these things? Did they ever actually try to use the ice that comes out of them? The shape of the ice is a round bottom with a flat top, kind of like a crescent moon shape.

The problem with this ice, and I'm sure you'll all agree, is that the radius of the bottom curve of the ice closely matches the inside radius of common beverage containers (cups, mugs, glasses, tumblers, etc.). When a beverage is consumed the ice invariably turns itself perpendicular to the flow of the beverage. Thus the ice creates a small dam of sorts to the intended imbibing of the desired refreshment. If he cares to drink more than a trickle, this requires that the intended recipient of said liquid refreshment tilt the glass ever higher in an attempt to obtain the optimal flow.

The attempt to obtain an adequate swig then results in the ice dam being overtopped, with an overabundance of beverage gushing uncontrollably toward the intended recipient's face, along with the unintentional social embarrasment and the attendant quips and comments about having a "drinking problem."

Andy's Blog : ice

Good Design/Bad Design #1