Having traveled more than once in England, in both the country and the city, I laughed pretty hard at these examples. Thanks for the link. But ricardo, Scots do not consider themselves British anymore than their Irish cousins do, and, like them, have spent several hundred years fighting for their independence.
It does appear that some motel rooms are designed by folks who NEVER had to do any work in them, or even spend any time in them. I am quite familiar with the small gap between the foot of the bed and the television cabinet. Actually, it would be interesting to find out if there are even rooms available without the television. My guess is "not."
It must be that there is some other anticipated type of activity that engineers like us never participate in, but that the rooms were designed for.
It would be very interesting to hear from one of those designers as to what they were thinking about. Do we have any takers?
This is a very entertaining article. I did a great deal of international travel for two employers over my 40 + years of engineering. During that time, I always marveled at differing design approaches to products and those manufacturing methods used to fabricate and assemble the designs. Schools of thought between western and eastern designs can be quite striking when examined. I was also "blown away" by the engineering capabilities of our Brazilian friends "down south". I found them to be very well trained and extremely resourceful in their approach to basic engineering. As engineers, we are trained to notice seemingly trivial things such as "room layout" but the best engineers need this discipline to make any and all necessary improvements. The powers of observation definitely factor into an individual's overall ability to find the root-cause relative problems found with equipment, components and assemblies.
I agree, well written and entertaining to read. I can certainly relate since I've stayed at many motels and hotels over the years. Now-a-days, I read many customer reviews on the Internet about hotels before making a choice. I've tended to have good luck choosing an acceptable hotel with a decent room. While I never stay at motels anymore (yuk!), I am willing to pay a bit more for a better hotel and room.
When I remodeled my kitchen at home two years ago, the longest time period was my extensive design review. (The second longest time was to pick the finishes with my wife...the cabinets, countertops and flooring. I chose all the appliances myself after considerable review.) I analyzed everything about my existing old kitchen, studied several different options for a new kitchen layout. I even had five different design reviews with my kitchen guy (he was using a 3D kitchen design software), until I was satisfied that the finished design was perfect. While I ended up with what looks like the same basic kitchen layout, I have countless refinements that made a huge difference. All the time spent on the design (and finishes and appliances) was well worth the time and effort! I enjoy my new kitchen every day when I'm at home, my wife and kids also.
Being a machine design engineer, I never fully realized that someone actually designed my space (I mean put some serious thought into it) - I assumed it just happened via the current occupants. Anything that didn't work, change it, if it was easy to do it.
I remember a larger group of us went into a restaurant and wanted to be together so we pushed some tables together. The proprietor became so irate that he kicked us out.
Thus, my experience in ambience design. Great article.
Thank you very much for a well written and entertaining artcile. I laughed the whole way through. It is always fun to try to understand the motivation for a design. As with yourexperience of the hotel, this is an area where people from all walks experience the design. Sometimes you have to wonder what they were thinking.
About a year ago, while travelling for work, I stayed in a hotel in a small town in North Carolina in which the dresser was missing about half of its drawers. It looked like something the owner had picked up from the side of the road. The rest of the room didn't look much better. The free breakfast consisted of Walmart cornflakes and milk from the owner's cupboard.
The owner was actually a very nice guy, and we had some interesting conversations, over Walmart cornflakes. But I got a strong sense from these conversations that running a hotel was not what God created him for.
Also, after checking out, I found that he had charged my credit card twice. It took over a month of phone calls from me and from the credit card company for him to reverse the charge.
For what it's worth, I've also stayed in $5 a night hotels in El Salvador and Guatemala, and had a much more enjoyable experience.
Nice observations, Doc. I know exactly what you mean about hotel rooms. Sometimes they're great and sometimes you bump around in the room wondering why the room feels so uncomfortable. It can be very unnerving to spend a few days in a poorly designed room.
Thanks for putting good design in the context of everyday principles and everyday routines. Some times I think we get too caught up in the technical aspects and lose sight of the everyday nuances, which in the end, serve to make or break a product or experience.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Labs have observed a reaction in lithium-air batteries that could help improve the design of these cells for electric vehicles and other applications.
Healthcare might seem to be an unlikely target application for the Internet of Things technology, but recent developments show small ways that big-data is going to make an impact on patient care moving into the future.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
4 
