On a daily basis I am astonished by the bad design of things. In my last home, the switch for the garbage disposal was on a panel with a light switch, and looked just like it. Approximately 50% of the time I turned on the light when I wanted to dispose of something, and vice versa. I tried to memorize which switch was which, but I always got confused by my own memory tricks. Were the switches ordered the way I thought they should be, and that was my memory trick, or were they ordered the opposite of how I would have done it, and THAT was my memory trick.
It really is astonishing how many things, even things from designers and manufacturers that should know better, are so carelessly designed. It’s almost as if no one ever actually tried to use it before putting it out in the wild.
Case in point: I have a convection/toaster oven made by Sanyo. I use it constantly since I rarely need the full oven and hate to waste the gas it takes to heat it up. In convection oven mode cooking is controlled by a button which selects between 5 or so temperature settings and a knob that sets a time between 0 and 30 minutes. Once you hit the start button there’s no turning back. Other than 4 LED indicators that show what 7.5 minute range the timer is in, the oven offers no indication of how much time has elapsed or is remaining in the cook time. The time knob remains exactly where you set it. It is also impossible to change the time by turning the knob. I’ve learned to live with these quirks but it still is a constant source of low-grade annoyance.