Shampoo gratings

What do things feel like?  This probably seems like a stupid question, but i've found that the way things feel has a lot to do with how pleasant your interaction with that thing is.  i remember having to rent a Ford Mustang a couple of years ago, and thinking wow i rented a classic American sports car to go to my stupid job meeting.  One of the first things you do when you get into your rental car is adjust the seat, especially if you're a tall lanky dude, and so that was really my first interaction with the car.  i felt under the seat, and immediately my hand came onto some nasty, cheap, sharp piece of plastic that i was supposed to adjust the seat with.  It was a piece of plastic i never saw, as it was under the seat, but it formed my initial impression of the car, and since the rest of the car failed to overcome it, the result is that i would never buy a Ford Mustang, all because of a piece of plastic hidden under the seat.  Do you think Ford cares about this?


So, about shampoo, i bitch the following: i buy Head and Shoulders shampoo, if for no other reason than its cheap and it seems to work.  The design of the bottle is fine, nothing special, trying to distinguish itself on the shelf with raw geometry, but the experience of using the bottle makes you wish you had chosen a fistful of beetles.  The top is made of hard cheap plastic, and when you open the lid to reveal the (invisible) spout, which is nothing but a hole in the top of the bottle, it makes this thin, cheap, cracking sound that's like a tiny spine snapping, just to let you know the designers didn't think about this experience at all.  The lid is also hard to open, and you have to fight with the nasty thing to pull it up, and while doing so it chews on your fingers like an old dachshund, or maybe the seat adjustment on a Mustang.  i hate opening the bottle.


Its easy for me to imagine the designers sitting around, perhaps having an occasional meeting to discuss how beautiful their new bottle for Proctor and Gamble is, while ignoring the act of using the stupid thing.  In the end, its a bad experience.  Sort of like having dandruff.  Which is gone, by the way.