I want to control my car without crashing it. Here’s where design is going wrong

September 23, 2026 — 7:00pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Our 19-year-old microwave died recently. Its replacement has a shiny black control panel. Heating last night’s pasta now takes 10 steps – Function > Microwave. Cook Time > 1, 2, 0. Power Level > 8. Confirm. Start! – to do what my mum’s turn-dial Panasonic did in 1982 with a single flick of the wrist.

Writer Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” to describe the degradation of digital platforms when profit is put ahead of usability. But look around your kitchen, home, office or car, and you’ll realise the internet isn’t the only place where things are getting worse. We are living through the shittification of real, physical things; something I call UnDesign.

UnDesign is the TV remote that is so symmetrical you don’t know which way it points, or so small I’ve forever lost two between my sofa cushions. It’s the oven with dozens of additional features if only you knew how to find them. It’s those new headphones that sound amazing … if only you could remember the right gesture for volume. While many are high-tech, UnDesigned products can also be the power tool that burns out when building a deck, or a........

© The Sydney Morning Herald