30 Surprising Features On Common Things That Are Not Widely Known

According to Dieter Rams, one of the most influential industrial designers in the world, what sets good design apart from bad design is that the former is innovative, makes the product useful, aesthetic, and understandable. That's why form, not just function is important; while over-design products tend to fail because they might make customers and users confused as to what exactly they're supposed to do.

It’s fascinating how many seemingly simple items have hidden features because they're integrated into the product so seamlessly. The design decisions behind many of these probably took dozens (if not hundreds) of hours to get just right as RnD employees sketched everything out, built prototypes, and then went back to the drawing board.

What you see in front of your eyes is the condensed labor of countless minds polishing, honing, and improving details to their limits.

Some of these design decisions are quite literally life-saving. Like the holes in pen caps and popsicle sticks being hollow to prevent choking if swallowed. Other design details are a matter of functionality. Like the lash tabs on backpacks used to attach rope and tools.

Meanwhile, parts of products that look like they were made solely for aesthetic reasons sometimes have actual functions. For instance, the raised ‘57’ mark on Heinz condiment bottles is actually the sweet spot that makes ketchup pour out faster if you tap it.

The holes near the bottoms of some trainers aren’t just for show, either: they’re used for ventilation and give you the ability to tie your laces in a different way to better support your ankles. Do you know of any other things with hidden purposes that we might all have been using wrong all this time? Let us know in the comment section, dear Readers!