Good Vs Bad Designs

Good Vs Bad Designs

Looking and using variety of interfaces and designs, I daily come across usability issues in things around. However,  when I am writing about good vs bad designs, more of bad designs come to my mind. It does not mean that there are more bad designs around, rather I take things that are easy to use for granted. When trying to write on such topic I tend to recall designs that were more difficult to use or I had struggle using.

Some examples:

1. Door Bell System : This is how my door bell system looks like.

Current Design

The UI looks pretty neat however I have struggled between talk and listen buttons almost everyday. The scenario is like whenever the door bell rings, I:
1. Press the talk button,say Hi, who is that?
2. Release talk button.
3. Press the Listen button to hear out.
While switching between Talk and Listen I almost always miss beginning of what person at the door said.
A Good design would rather be having a one button that pressed should do functions of talk and listen both.(Something like below.)

New Proposed Design

2. Setting up a reminder on Iphone : Nothing against Apple! I m an Apple fan,however I don't much like Reminders app UI. The inability to set a reminder quickly without recalling how I managed to somehow do it last time, makes it a bad design for me. When I go to reminders in iphone, the screen is something like below: (callout gives my thought process when I m on that screen..)

I am looking for a screen that asks me very basic things about the reminder :

• Reminder for, when and where(optionally).

Yes, Iphone reminders does have that screen too(below screenshot) but it has to be memorized, how to go to that screen. I always have to recall how to get to it. You are suppose to click on the blank line in the list displayed,which then becomes editable(screenshot on left below).You can then set up a name and by clicking on "i" icon go to the screen that you have been looking for(screenshot on right below).
 A good design is where I recognize by merely looking onto the screen,instead of recalling or struggling with the UI.

A good design would be anything that is intuitive. See below a screenshot from Google Now which, I feel gives a simple, intuitive and neat UI on clicking on set a reminder.

Good Design

3.  Travel Sites Search box and its search results: Below images are the search functionality designs from two different travel sites Priceline and Expedia.

Priceline

Expedia

Both the above images are self explanatory. The design from Expedia is not a bad design as it fulfills the need of the user however the design from Priceline, I would say, is better and makes me think less as a user.
There are many times that I go to a travel site and just know the city/place I want to visit. I am not sure about the airport near by. In that case Priceline site design helps me to reduce my cognitive load by clearly indicating categories in results list. Also the 'place of interest' word in search box makes a connection with my vacation mind. :)
This in no way concludes, that overall Priceline is a better site than Expedia or vice versa. The above example is a comparison of only one of the design features in both the sites.

The list can go on and on.. Before finishing I would like to share a quote that I recently read,
“It’s not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and yes, beauty to people’s lives.”
— Don Norman