Everyday Thing With Design Flaws: The Corkscrew Wine Opener

Everyday Thing with a design flaw:

The corkscrew wine opener:

Affordances: The perceived affordances of this product invite people to simply try to screw it into the cork. There is little else that one could be expected to do by just looking at the item. For example, what are the multiple little points for? In addition, there is little to explain what the flip top portion could possibly be used for. It is possible that a diagram could have been included on the corkscrew to clarify some of the possibilities.

Constraints: The corkscrew does not have enough constraints. The corkscrew itself is not the problem. It is fairly clear that it should be used to screw into the cork. The main problem has to do with the lever, which offers too many possibilities of movement, making it difficult to properly position without more knowledge.

Feedback: Feedback is a problem, because if you have used the opener incorrectly, it is very possible that you have damaged the cork, pushed the cork in the bottle, or pulled out the top half of the cork.

Overall, opening a wine bottle should not be a difficult task. Yet, I remember being 21 and feeling loads of pressure trying to use a bottle opener. I remember several emabarassing moments when I ruined bottles of wine by pushing the cork in or making it impossible to extract the cork because I damaged it so thoroughly. It seems like the item could have been designed better to accommodate to these concerns.