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@lae
I get frustrated by poorly designed objects every day:
Typing on an iPad.
Squeezing lemons with Juicy Salif (or using any of Starck's ridiculously gratuitous 'designs')
Operating the toilet doors on Cross Country trains.
Not knowing, after two years, which lightswitches operate which lights in my kitchen.
Staring at my washing machine wondering why it isn't working, then realising that the power button defies convention by being OFF when the button is depressed and ON when the button is raised.
Searching for the channel listing button on my remote for ages, before giving up and pressing every single button, then finding out that the button I want is a tiny one near the bottom-right corner marked 'EPG', so small that it is difficult to press.
Using my girlfriend's touchscreen phone without the stylus, which is about the size of a needle, and which doesn't attach to or insert into the phone in any way, and doesn't have a cord to put it on your keyring, and which unsurprisingly became lost within a couple of hours of buying the phone.
Trying to pay a cheque into an automated machine at Halifax - the 'accept' button pops up, I press it, nothing happens, I stab it repeatedly with my finger and nothing happens, then after a long pause it highlights and flips into the next screen. The next screen has a 'start again' button in the same place, which registers my repeated stabbing of the previous button. I start again. When I successfully make it to the next screen, it asks for the cheque number after I've inserted the cheque. Restart again, ask for a pen and write the number on my hand.
The inability to attach highlighter lids to the reverse of the pen bodies.
I'm focusing my studies in user centred design; my future career will probably involve testing such infuriating objects daily. I fully expect to be bald, dangerously underweight and a chain smoker within three years of professional designing.