Anyone designing a device should be forced to sleep in the same room with it. I’d also support a blanket ban on LEDs and long prison sentences for anyone who makes one blink.

This message brought to you by me, the guy who just spent half an hour duck taping over every LED in this room.

Does your device need an LED?

No.

Does your device need a blinking LED?

Fuck no.

(Please feel free to print this out and post it in product design departments everywhere.)

#design #LEDs #lightPollution

@aral does your LASER need to be shielded so it doesn’t shine into people’s eyes and damage them in the long term causing or worsening vision impairment and cataracts? Yes, but it hasn’t stopped supermarkets from installing lasers without protections.
@aral
I'm the same. Black paint markers are also a good solution. I long for the glory days of the low power red LED. Blue LED should be forbidden.
@aral I bought some neutral density stickers that I slap on things. The brighter the LED the more stickers it gets.
@fullywoolly @aral
Seconded, these are great.
@aral totally with you on that. I have been in hotel rooms with different devices shining red, blue, and green LEDs into my eyes at night.
@rohini @aral Worst one I’ve had the misfortune of experiencing was a bright orange “night light” by the hotel room door…. About 2.5m from the head of the bed. If you sleep on your side, there was no way to avoid it.
@aral
The special light proof tape is worth the extra $.
@jaystephens Hey I’m a theatre kid, there’s nothing you can’t do if you have enough duct tape :P
@aral I'm one the few that unplug TV in hotel rooms... because of the f... red dot that annoys me! 😅
@aral i'm wondering.. is there an option to unplug? 😂😉💋
@stephanies Not really. Includes things like the fibre box on the wall (one of the worst offenders).
@aral
You are right, especially who needs blue leds display impossibile to mask or to turn off, on a air conditioner hanged 3 m above the ground in a hotel room? i needed to put a black tee-shirt over my head to sleep, one night.