25 Smart Designs That Can Turn Our Lives Upside Down

We are so used to the functionality of certain things that hardly any of us muses upon seeing them in a slightly better design. Elevators with buttons for toes, sanitary door handles where you don’t need to touch the doorknob or a sticker that helps to determine avocado’s ripeness stage — all these small but important things can improve our lives greatly and, luckily, some of them already exist.

Bright Side adores innovations and has compiled a set of photos for you showing 25 inventions that are both simple and ingenious.

1. Urinals that protect your shoes from splashback

2. This elevator has buttons you can press with your feet if your hands are full.

3. All the hooks and shelves you need!

4. “My university library has a wall where you can quite literally take a seat.”

5. This avocado sticker has a color chart so that you know when it’s ripe.

6. These potato chips that have a tab to lift the chips up so you don’t have to put your hand inside the tube.

7. A urinal that allows you to flush with your feet

8. This restaurant has a “toepener” for people who want to avoid germs on doorknobs.

9. One thoughtful message can make a difference.

10. This store has a winter simulator for testing out winter clothing.

11. These pedal-powered outlets at Schipol Airport help to both charge your phone and give you a workout.

12. Finally, there is no need to touch that germy door handle.

13. Here’s another way to open a door without touching it.

14. This dressing room lets you control what type of light is in the room.

15. The priority seats for train passengers show who you are expected to move for.

16. The design of this water fountain lets the water flow down so dogs can drink too.

17. This restaurant bathroom has 2 different kinds of soaps.

18. With these elevators, you first choose your floor and then you’re assigned an elevator to take you to that floor.

19. “My local university has an area in the library where you can walk and work simultaneously.”

20. A pen that tels you how many pages it has left

21. In Switzerland there are sockets that fit 3 plugs in at a time.

22. Pill box and water bottle that come as one

23. “My daughter’s first grade classroom has desks with pedals so kids can move while learning.”

24. This spoon has an indent so it doesn’t slip into the bowl.

25. No more night time “light-gap”

Which of these smart designs seems the most useful to you? We would love to hear from you in the comments!