Bad Designs - Hot water dispenser

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Hot water dispenser

Here is a picture of a hot water dispenser in a cafeteria. The hot water dispenser (bottom arrow) is between two coffee dispensers and is hard to see. The button to turn on the hot water is located well above the dispensers (top arrow). Because the dispenser and button are too far apart, people have a tendency to "test" the hot water by pressing the button. This causes hot water to come out onto the counter top.

Design suggestion

A control needs to be associated with the device it controls. One way to do this is to locate the control next to the device. In the example above, a person expects the hot water button and dispenser to be closer to each other like the coffee dispensers.

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