Functional product design
People never cease to amaze me. They always find ways to do the
unexpected, and use things in ways that nobody could foresee in advance,
or plan for.
Which is a problem for manufacturers everywhere, because when they sell
something, all of a sudden they need to start to not only think about
how it will hold up to regular use, but also what other strange and
twisted ideas will people have about it.
And because the product wasn’t designed for these ideas, sometimes
those odd usages may be dangerous. And if the odd notion becomes
popular enough, products sometimes have to be recalled, for safety
reasons, through no fault of the designers.
Like these nice gel candles.
Which had to be recalled because the gel can catch fire. How silly is
that, I ask you? Why would anyone in their right mind would ever put a
candle near a flame, after all, right? Right? The notion is absurd!
It’s obvious why the company didn’t bother checking for this in
advance…
Or, like these candle holders.
Which it turns out are made of plastic that can ignite and melt. And
which contain a battery, that can explode due to the heat. Again, quite
absurd, because why would anyone put a candle holder in contact with
fire? It’s not like they burn candles in it, or anything like that…
Hat tip to The Old New Thing.
April 4th, 2005 at 10:21 EET | Categories: Miscellaneous |
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