Good design is in the details

UPDATE: customer service for the company referenced provided a diagram revealing 2 small screws I overlooked. MY BAD.

Yes it’s a “duh” statement. Of course good design is in the details. I’m having one of those bad usability days because somewhere along the line, folks decided to ignore maintenance as part of the process of creating a product. (No, I’m not about to go off on Boeing. Thankfully I’ve not been touched personally by that predictable charlie foxtrot.)

I want to talk about fans. I like to sleep with a small fan on and appreciate airflow throughout my apartment. I found this product a couple of years ago. I bought two of them. They’re great, with one BIG exception. The design ignored maintenance.

As you can imagine, after a while, a fan gets a lotta, um, crap stuck to the blades. Vacuuming does a good job early on but years of use means they MUST be cleaned.

The fucking fan is difficult, no, it’s impossible for me to clean, with only my two hands. The globe clips DO NOT RELEASE easily and I’m spare you the rest. It’s pretty mundane stuff but since I wasted a lotta energy and a couple of hours of frustration, here I am venting to the interwebs.

I loathe finding the constant evidence of our disposal mindset. It won’t ruin my day but it’s ruining the planet. I hate that IRIS USA INC would rather I spend (now) $160 to replace these fans and add mine to a dumpster. Dammit.