Tesla door handles and other designs we hate
Also: the "Steve Jobs" microwave, and what happened to couches???
Hello NSTers,
I hope you all had a restful and uneventful Thanksgiving weekend. I’m excited to welcome you all to Devan Design Week — which is not actually a week, but one episode dedicated to the things I HATE the design of. In this inaugural installment, I’m taking aim at Tesla door handles, microwaves, and modern-day couches.
(Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Others)
After venting about our own experiences with these award-losing designs, we’ll chat with some experts to get to the bottom of what the hell is going on: WIRED’s Aarian Marshall, Kill Switch host and part-time microwave engineer Dexter Thomas, and design expert and Snake newsletter writer Sami Reiss.
Once you’ve listened, come back here for some extras:
Check out Aarian’s reporting on Tesla, plus Bloomberg’s deep dive on the door handles. We also reached out to Tesla ourselves but haven’t heard back.
Here’s Dexter’s “Steve Jobs Microwave.” Innovative, to say the least.
And Sami’s favorite modern couch: Vitra’s modular sofa, the Anagram.
Sidenote: I’m a huge fan of Sami’s newsletter Snake — the man finds gems. I grabbed some Merrell’s he recommended on Black Friday, and even scored these nightstands on LiveAuctioneers for only $300.
If you want to step up your design game, subscribe immediately. I also have five free one-month paid subscriptions to give away. Be one of the first five people to reply to this email and it’s yours.
If you want to hear me and Noah go head-to-head in some holiday trivia, you can hear us on this week’s episode of Troubled Waters!
Have something you want us to tackle in the 2nd Annual Devan Design Week episode? Email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at (860) 325-0286 and follow us on Instagram.
If you’re a fan of the show, please leave us a five-star rating wherever you listen and drop a nice review — it really helps. And share the show with a friend while you’re at it.
I think this is my favorite episode yet as these are three design things I think about all the time!! I once had an uber - Ford Mustang Mach E with a weird tiny circular button to open the door. I couldn’t figure it out and the driver acted like that was strange.
Also I’d love a subscription to that furniture design newsletter!
Listening to this episode, I realized I have anxiety about opening a Tesla door handle -- and that is insane! "Am I going to push the wrong side of the handle? Am I going to look like an idiot?" Of course this is completely setting aside the anxiety about dying in a car fire because I'm trapped inside. But honestly I think less about that, and more about looking stupid to my Uber driver.