"Although Sturgeon’s Law is not based on any empirical evidence, it does contain a kernel of truth. And while the 90% threshold is up for considerable debate, this loose figure seems to capture the general consumer sentiment towards content and products," Johnson explained to Bored Panda.

"It also speaks to the general threshold for subjective appreciation of art, products, and creative output: since there is so much out there, the consumer must triage. You can’t think everything is amazing, or 'amazing' becomes meaningless. In this way, regardless of the intrinsic quality of the goods, they’ll appreciate and enjoy the top ~10%."

According to the neuroscientist, the law has become even more true now, in 2023. In his opinion, the threshold for how much rubbish is created now is "likely raised to 95% or higher," as more and more people have the tools to put their work and products on the market. "This comes down to the rise of digital media, generative AI, and the incredible ease of self-producing. As the skill and capital requirements to create new products have become less and less, the sheer volume of creative works has exploded," Johnson said.

"And while this has increased the number of exceptional works, it has also made it harder for people to separate the good from the bad, making their thresholds even higher."

Bored Panda was very interested to learn about the emotional aspect of consumers evaluating the quality of products. We were also curious whether a single bad product could have a large impact on the reputation of an entire brand. "The emotional component is huge," Johnson told us.

"If the consumer feels positively towards a product, 90% of the battle is won. In fact, emotionality can easily trump the functionality of the product; if a consumer feels good about it, they’re much more forgiving about how it works. For example, many argue that from a purely functional standpoint, the iPhone is inferior to the Google Pixel. But of course, the emotional feelings towards the iPhone (largely stemming from the Apple brand), easily overcome this and then some," the neuroscientist gave us an example of how this works.

Meanwhile, the reputation of any brand is closely tied to the reputation of the products it produces. "If the product dips below expectations, the reputation of the entire brand suffers." To reduce risk, brand managers spend a lot of time on brand architecture: creating distinct brands within a company's portfolio.

"For example, Volkswagen AG (the company) owns the Volkswagen brand, and also Porsche, Bentley, Ducati, etc. This de-risks the spillover effect across these brand assets. In this way, if something goes wrong with, for example, the Volkswagen Taureg, it won’t impact their perception of Porsche, etc."

The bad design-focused subreddit has amassed a whopping 3.4 million members since it was established in 2011. And there’s a lot to love about the online group.

The community has a ridiculously good sense of humor, so you’re bound to see a lot of examples of low-quality designs that are going to get you to chuckle. What’s more, the entire sub is a crash course in taste. Or, well, rather the lack of it. If you work in any creative or design-related field, it’s a place that teaches you what mistakes to avoid.

Unsurprisingly, members of the subreddit are encouraged to stay on-message and only post examples of rubbish design. What this means, in practice, is that there has to be an obvious lack of taste or functionality seen in professional products. The key word here is ‘professional.’ So broken items, manufacturing defects, or clearly amateur designs don’t fit the bill here.

Similarly, the multi-million-member community is told to be as original as possible. So if you’re a fresh-faced Reddit recruit, check out the sub’s top 150 posts so you know what not to share with the community. Everyone enjoys new content instead of the same old carousel of pics, so don’t be shy and do a bit of research.

Meanwhile, the team running the group points out that some designs aren’t bad, even if they might look like that on the surface. For instance, clocks with the Roman numeral 4 written as IIII instead of IV do not count. That’s because IIII is a common alternative way of writing IV. Again—research!

As elsewhere on the web, be as courteous to all the other internet users as you can. Legitimate discussions about design, aesthetics, and consumer culture are perfectly fine. So long as they don’t devolve into name-calling, spiteful comments, or sharing someone else’s personal info online. If you need any additional info about, well, anything, the sub has a detailed Wiki. Meanwhile, if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with the moderators.

Being a good designer means being great at communication and having unparalleled knowledge about your field. Tim Antoniuk, a design expert from the University of Alberta, previously told Bored Pada during an interview that a lot of responsibility rests solely on designers’ shoulders when it comes to the quality of a building project.

"It's hard, but that's why the best designers get paid so well for their outstanding work. They do great design/aesthetic work, but they also create efficiencies and they foresee and spot (some) problems from happening,” Antoniuk explained to us before.

"Many jobs can not just stop because a designer is not onsite or is not able to be reached. That said, builders need to honor the designer's vision, but again, if there is 'fuzziness' in the drawings or plans, decisions will be made by people that we may not want to make them,” the design expert said.

"We exist in a field that is ever-changing with the introduction of new materials, new construction requirements, and restrictions," Antoniuk told Bored Panda that a builder has to be able to communicate their vision to the contractors and stay on top of changes and novelties in their field of work.

During another interview with us, Antoniuk explained to Bored Panda that good design often relates to ergonomics and “the usability and functionality of the products and services and systems.” Good design is intuitive, deeply sympathetic, empathetic to the user, and emotional. “It is a catalyst for giving us feelings,” the design expert said.

However, he noted that, in his opinion, “far too many people expect poor design that doesn’t really work well.” 

For some more awful and hilarious design decisions, take a peek at Bored Panda’s earlier features here, here, and here.

Meanwhile, feel free to drop by the comments and tell us all about the designs in this list that you loved to hate the most. We have our favorites in mind for the top spots, but what are yours?