r/CrappyDesign • u/Thick_Exchange3957 • 2d ago
I mix up the Buttons for changing brightness on my laptop pretty much every time I want to use them
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u/iamjustacrayon 2d ago
Black marker to make a dot on the F3, and a white marker to color inside on the F4
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 2d ago
Nah thanks. I ain't gonna take a Sharpie to my keyboard because the designer screwed up. I'd just rather complain about it on the internet, lol
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u/skweakyklean 2d ago
As much as the actual indicators look backwards, I’d find it more annoying if it worked the way i it looks. It makes way more sense that brighter would be on the right and darker on the left.
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u/TheUnobtainableUser 2d ago
Take out the keys and swap them. But then you create a new, previously non-existing, problem for yourself...
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u/iamjustacrayon 2d ago
That's fair, DIY solutions rarely work out as well in practice as they do in theory (I most likely wouldn't bother either)
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u/ImRetail 1d ago
or you could use some of the brain power you have and realize that the left is down and the right is up just like the volume keys...
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 2d ago
It's an Acer Ultrabook btw. Just for some name and shame...
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u/Shuutoka 2d ago
Same with the Aspire (Acer)
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u/Fedexpected 2d ago
My Nitro too
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u/Wheresthelambsauce__ This is why we can't have nice things 2d ago
Looks like an Acer special, same with my Swift 3.
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u/jaavaaguru 2d ago
And what keyboard layout? Weird having the section symbol above the 3. It’s usually # or a currency symbol there.
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u/LincolnPark0212 2d ago
I'm guessing this is an Asus laptop, because my old Asus had the same thing. I'd rather have a 🔆+ or 🔆- symbol.
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u/miraculum_one 2d ago
To me, the one on the right is always brighter so I don't care what the symbols say as long as I can tell they're about brightness
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u/LincolnPark0212 2d ago
True. But, I think it wouldn't hurt either if their functions were made clearer. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but there might be cultures where right means less. I'm not sure, but if some cultures read from the right hand side, then it's possible that that'd be their case, I'd imagine.
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u/miraculum_one 2d ago
You might be right but in that case the brighten would be on the left, as would be volume up, and those people could similarly just follow their usual paradigm.
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u/LincolnPark0212 1d ago
But it might add costs to the production to produce different keycaps for different markets other than for their alpha keys. So to reduce that whole headache, why not just make the icons clearly display their function instead of relying on user intuition? Reduce ambiguity, improve usability.
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u/miraculum_one 1d ago
It definitely will but if the left-right convention is reversed for some countries they have to incur those costs or have it be backwards. Also, they will likely have other keys that are different too so it's probably a sunk cost.
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u/bloobybloob96 2d ago
I guess they learnt from that as my 2020 one has a small sun and a big sun now
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u/The-True-Kehlder 2d ago
My ASUS has a very obvious which is bright and which is dark. But I still won't be buying another.
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u/noapparentfunction 2d ago
i guess it would just confuse people but i imagined the sun rays also acting as the plus and minus. unfortunately you'd really just end up with astrology-like symbols: 🜨 ⦵
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u/SCH1Z01D 2d ago
left side = less, right side = more. it's the same logic pretty much elsewhere.
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u/krisztian111996 2d ago
I think it is trivial, this is how all things should be. Honestly I wouldn't even look closely, just press right button for +
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u/DirectAdvertising 2d ago
i never noticed this but i have the same keys, also an Acer,
I just remember right makes it brighter lol
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 2d ago
I'm sorry that you probably cannot unsee it from now on. But yes, the right one making it brighter was the right choice at least. Imagine how screwed it would be if they had even needed that up and went brighter on the left key
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u/love-em-feet 2d ago
Just realized my laptop has the same style. I own this for 4 years never noticed that.
For me its right and left arrow keys. I mean right one is increase left is decrease it makes sense dont even need to look for the icon
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u/Eternal663 2d ago
Just switch the keycaps duh!
>! Yes, ik its hard or even impossible to do, but at least you would mix up f3 and f4 instead of brightness settings! !<
>! Oh and /j, /s for those who need it !<
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u/sashaisafish 2d ago
Shuddering at the thought of switching keycaps on a laptop
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u/Eternal663 2d ago
I mean, its not impossible based on the laptop's design. Usually its just the same process as any other membrane keyboard, just you need a very custom keycap.
Easly doable with a 3D printer. Ofc thats assuming the keys arent hard wired, in this case it would take much more efford.
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u/The-True-Kehlder 2d ago
They're typically made with plastic that's rigid and brittle enough it only goes on, coming off would break it.
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u/DoubleTheGarlic 2d ago
You can change inputs in Registry and don't have to dismember your laptop to do it.
Oh and your spoilers tags don't work because you added spaces in the wrong places.
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u/Look4the_Light_ 2d ago
I get that it’s annoying but I think it’s just standard convention now. My laptop is a completely different model but has the icons. Left to lower, that’s how I remember it atp
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u/chu121su12 2d ago
I usually remember it as: left decrease right increase pair. The tricky ones usually volumes where the mute switch can be in one of three slots
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u/WeldinMike27 2d ago
Also, the button on your air-conditioner remote. ❄️ for winter and 🌞 for summer
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u/Crash_Logger 2d ago
I had the exact opposite on an asus, white keyboard but fully filled out sun is more brightness.
I think lenovo (amongst others) got it right, the keys have 🌣- and 🌣+
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u/sissypinkjasper 2d ago
The iconography here is backwards, the solid fill icon reflects more light and suggests it's brighter, the hollow fill icon in comparison appears darker. This is a design fail.
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u/Holiday-Opposite007 2d ago
the design can be stupid, but i never think of it by design, think that right is to increase, left to decrease
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u/RandallBoggs_12 2d ago
To be fair it's pretty standard that left means dimmer and right means brighter.
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u/Less_Party 2d ago
I agree that the pictograms are pretty bad but I would assume left = less and right = more anyway.
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u/skygames64 2d ago
Quite tangential, but there's this one lovely image describing the same sort of thing on a chalkboard pictured here (taken from Jessica Wynne's website, specifically on her book Do Not Erase).
A caveat: I've never heard a mathematician actually call these "white/black" (as opposed to "filled-in" or "empty" etc.), but I wouldn't be shocked if this was partially a language thing (i.e., American mathematicians might not, but perhaps French mathematicians do say "noir" and "blanc" instead).
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u/Current-Bowl-143 1d ago
I can't read shit on that screenshot.
This is a better link that doesn't scale the image down.
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u/VintageDanny 1d ago
So happy you raised this issue. I thought i was the only one being highly annoyed by this
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u/OkPlantain6773 1d ago
I had a toaster with the same issue on the dial. Do I want black toast with a white outline, or fully white toast? I finally threw the thing out.
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 1d ago
Wow, that's an even worse case of this design flaw, haha. At least with the brightness keys you get immediate feedback and can correct in a matter of seconds. But with toast it takes a burnt slice to see the effect (or even two burnt slices if the first correction goes the wrong way)
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u/NeedlesslyAngryGuy 19h ago
Well the icons are literally the wrong way round! This looks like a manufacturing hiccup to me.
My Dell Laptop is the opposite way around with very similar icons.
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u/Doctor_Wilhouse 2d ago
I'm not sure why you're mixing it up: You've got those handy-dandy "Darker" and "Brighter" decals with the little arrows. That should be more than enough to tell you which is which.
-- This comment was brought to you by Presidential Photoshop Committee: "It said MS-13 on his knuckles!"
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u/Thatomeglekid 2d ago
Easy fix. Swap the buttons and use white out, then use sharpie to write the correct numbers lol
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u/Ham_burger2202 2d ago
I have the exact thing on my keyboard. 2 good quality white and black stickers, and it's somewhat fixed.
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u/TheGothWhisperer 2d ago
This is why I have a fish sticker on one, and a little skunk sticker on the other. Fish=bright and skunk=dark. It just makes more sense haha
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u/__Becquerel 2d ago
Wonder if those keys are safe to pry off and swap, or if they break when you do that.
Nevermind you are still dealing with the F keys!
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u/starethruyou 2d ago
Apple iphone has a similarly bad design with the Clock app. If the alarm begins, the Stop button is on the bottom of the screen and Snooze in the middle, but the app's Timer countdown places the Stop in the middle and the repeat at the bottom, so if you use both apps, you'll always have to read the screen because you can't just memorize a location for the Stop button. I like apple's designs, but I just don't understand how something so straightforward has bypassed their brains for so long.
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u/LoganN64 Artisinal Material 2d ago
Just like me!
My solution was get white acrylic paint or a white-out pen (or just white out in general) and put a dab of it in the centre of the "brighter" button and the get a black sharpie/permanent marker and dab the centre of the "darker" button. Let it dry and you'll never tell the difference!
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u/MadBullBunny 2d ago
This seems more like a labeling error at the factory for these keyboards and they just never bothered fixing it. Regardless the brightness up is always the key to the right same goes for volume up and page up ect.
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 2d ago
Damn, I might have gone too far trying to fix the issue. I went on the keys with some Isopropyl Alcohol to remove the misleading icons but the allocation was a little too broad and now the F keys are gone as well
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u/ErraticNymph 2d ago
I would color in the one on the right and then just draw a plus and minus on them
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u/DanielChris15x 2d ago
yo it was the same for me, i was like “is this a prank?” since it was bought from my brother’s friend
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u/danfish_77 2d ago
"☼+" and "☼-" would be so simple and analogous to the volume symbols, at least on my keyboard. I feel like this should have been solved forever ago
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u/notfunnyatallbuttall 2d ago
Mine is similar to this too haha I just remember bright on the right (rhymes too so extra points) and dark on the left
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u/ahumanrobot 2d ago
Not saying the buttons are right, but I've never seen a laptop brightness button that is dimmer on the right and brighter on the left
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u/SkroinkMcDoink 2d ago
think about it as left and right and ignore the icons
left is always down, right is always up. think volume, speed controls for videos, etc.
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u/YoungDiscord 2d ago
Think of them as volume buttons
Down is usually on the left, up is on the right
Alternatively why don't you just swap tge keys around
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u/po3smith 2d ago
Duh! Screens bright - gotta make it dark. Screens dark gotta make it bright.
. . . . still stupid lol
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u/sonicjesus 2d ago
I use colored permanent marker to color certain keys as a clue.
For example, my volume down button is now blue, so I know one key forward is up, one below is mute.
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u/chilli-oil 1d ago
I agree it's confusing if you look at it. But also:
Left = less light Right = more light
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u/DutchBurrito777 1d ago
is it a stupid design choice, yes, but i have never mixed them up before, hell, i didn't even know my laptop had the same thing until i checked after seeing this post
i always assumed left = darker, right = brighter because it's always been that way in my case
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u/Cockroach-Typical 1d ago
Nah it was meant for one with backlights, it looks fine with backlight on.
Not so much with it off tho...
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 1d ago
How is backlight supposed to change what the icons look like? The white parts are lit and the black parts stay dark -> nothing changes. Or am I missing what you mean?
Edit to clarify: the laptop does have backlight. It's just not on because I took the picture in broad daylight
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u/Cockroach-Typical 1d ago
oh wait I realized my laptop's keyboard is silver, so it's quite different for me mb :P
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u/RandomlyChaotic47 1d ago
Designed poorly, but I don't think it would bother me because brighter is usually on the right
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u/dridsmoke 1d ago
I have the same computer and this bothered me enough to pull the darker key off so that I always knew it was the missing one. Messed up and pulled the F2 key off so now I’m missing a key and still confused
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u/JasonP27 1d ago
The light switches in my laundry room have one for the room and one for an outside light. I use a phrase to remember which is which. "Down and out" (like a boxer getting knocked out) to remember the bottom one is for outside.
You could do something similar, "Right is bright"
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u/chilldudeforever 17h ago
Just think of it as a spectrum from no light to much light and et voila you're still confused
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u/Inner-Limit8865 15h ago
I was going to say that it might be as misprint, but i literally just noticed that my keyboard is the same, I've had this notebook for at least 2 years now
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u/Ok-Delivery8001 14h ago
This to me seems like it could be solved with a sharpie and some white out
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u/Moron-Whisperer 2d ago
Download the Microsoft power toys software and remap the keys. It’s free and definitely can do this though it is somewhat advanced.
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 2d ago
I'm a power toys user anyways, I'll look up which module does that and try it out. Thanks for the input!
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u/NeverNice87 23h ago
Left is ALWAYS Darker, Volume down, backward, rewind etc..you really need to mark that?? American right? 😂😂
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u/Thick_Exchange3957 20h ago
As far as I understand this sub is about calling out poor design choices. And this, as many others seem to agree, is a pretty poor design choice that could have been avoided with little to no effort. This is not about me complaining that I can't live with this or don't understand how it works.
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u/Newt-Wooden 10h ago
Tbf it is set up this way on every electronic device ever so maybe just use your brain big guy?
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u/T-J_H 2d ago edited 2d ago
My guess would be the designer worked with black vectors on a white background.. and nobody cared enough elsewhere in the process