You are definitely not the only one.

I often wonder that when I use certain products. “How can this obviously terrible design choice not be reflected in reviews?”

I think it comes up in at least some product reviews, but where it's glaringly obvious, it doesn't show up in the reviews because people purposely look for products that aren't like that. Buying a TV for my bedroom, one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color.

An unrelated example is that, at Target stores in the US, there are these (paper) notebooks/journals/diaries that have writing on the front that label them as such. The designs are really nice, but the labels make it ugly - as many people who chose not to buy the product will say "why do I need it to say journal on the front? I know it's a journal" and "I don't want to use it as a journal... I want to use it as a cookbook!" In this way, the reviews self-select only for people who don't care about the labels.

They should really have antireviews where people can write why they didn't buy the product. It would give sellers some kind of signal that there's an issue with their product or its documentation causing people to avoid it.

> some kind of signal

Low sales is a signal. Also, they can hire a UX researcher.

I realize I wasn't clear about that - these notebooks are well-liked and have tons of positive reviews. There is no low sales signal, because people who don't care about the labels still buy the notebooks. It's that they're missing more sales from the people who don't buy them because of the ugly labels on the front. That would be the same with TVs, the only way a TV maker would really know is if they sold a "bedroom TV" and saw no one was buying it or it was getting a lot of returns for the LED indicators being too bright. Even then, if you have consumers who are cognizant of bright LEDs and can't find any information about it, it might still not be indicated in the sales that certain consumers don't want it.

Will they even know to hire a UX researcher?

But even then, as just a consumer, antireviews would be super helpful.

With a category rank by 'least bad'.

I imagine the signal they measure is AB test / throw crap at a wall type scale i.e. they trial lots of lines of product and scale-up and restock those doing great margin/numbers and drop those that don't. They don't care too much about subjective product picker's design opinions or user reviews - if it sells, it's stocked.

I also expect the demographic they are selling to are impulse buyer notebook neophytes. The lettered purpose on the front triggers those buyers. They buy the product and put it to one side, never to use it. Repeat buyers that care about the notebook design probably turn to specialist brands they multi-buy online.

They can compare sales figures with other notebook brands', if they buy some competitive intelligence or do some sleuthing. Opportunity cost of lost sales.

> one aspect of the search would include looking in the manual and seeing if has a suppressible standby light or checking for a non-aggressive standby light color

as if modern TVs had manuals or that was an information listed on any modern appliance manual

I'd love to hear from someone in the consumer electronics business to weigh in on how this happens. Who in the design chain wants LED lights on everything? Probably not engineering--it's more work for them. Probably not the business managers--it adds unnecessary cost to the product. Is it the industrial designers? Do they simply have to have LEDs all over everything? Is it just dogma that everyone follows/accepts: "You have to have an LED light!" How does it happen?

If I have to guess, support & engineering would be the main force behind LEDs.

For example, you have USB port in the bed base, and it does not charge the cellphone, so you call tech support. With LED, it's simple. LED on -> "verify the USB port is not bent or damaged, check your cable, check your cellphone"; LED off -> "verify bed is plugged in, verify outlet has power". Without it? Much harder, especially if you are talking over the phone to non-technical person who does not follow the instructions.

(I made a number of one-off home devices for my own use and there is almost always an indicator LED of some sort. Combined activity/power if I can make one, or at least a power one if it's impossible. Some of them are blue, because blue is a nice color and needs really low current to be visible)

The real questions are: why blue, and why so bright?

LED indicators are useful, but they should be red (which comes with the added benefits of being less expensive and drawing less power than blue ones), and shouldn't be bright enough to light the area around them.

the "why so bright" part is simple: given same current, blue is noticeably brighter. A 5 mA current will make passable red, but flashlight-level blue. If you are old-school designer who got used to red and green LEDs, all your blues would be super bright. I still worry when I see 2K or a 5K resistor next to a LED: "Wait, that's too much resistance and too little current, user is not going to see it... hm, which color is it? Are you sure it's that sensitive? Maybe decrease resistance a bit just to make sure you don't have to redo the PCBs?"

Which also means that blue LEDs draw _less_ power than red and green ones, for the same brightness. Thinking about this, this could be a one reason to use them in battery-backed devices.

The "less expensive" part may be was true in the past, but is bogus today: a random search shows $0.01468 for red[0] and $0.01572 for blue[1] in 10K quantity. 0.1 cent is not going to affect your final cost, unless you are into super-cheap devices.

[0] https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/beking-optoelectr...

[1] https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/beking-optoelectr...

If all of that is true, then I guess I'm just doomed to having to cut the blue LEDs out of the devices I buy forevermore? That's a bit depressing. I was hoping that this was the result of a fad that would eventually pass, eliminating a common irritation from my life.

Thermodynamics is into blue LEDs. ;p

Your only hope is the transition to post-LED technology.

Wonder if some of it is due to blue still being perceived as high tech. For people over a certain age, red was the default LED color for decades as may have become associated in the average person's mind with outdated technology.

I don't think you need someone in the industry. It is added because without a light people don't think it is working, and the bright blue lights are tiny any cheap, and adding a way o dim them or turn them off is more expensive.

Blue LEDs were a lot more expensive when they were first introduced than red, green, amber, etc. Putting blue LEDs on products was seen as premium or trendy, but by this point, they’re not as special, but they are still more expensive than other colors. White LEDs are typically blue LEDs with phosphor that is excited by the blue light so it emits white(-ish) light. White LEDs are often similarly priced to the blue LEDs they’re based on.

[product designer who’s designed in countless indicator LEDs on products based on the product requirements and also often ends up adding tape or funtack over the LEDs on products to avoid blinking in the bedroom]

There's a brand on Amazon called LIGHT DIMS that sells differently sized stickers, in both ultra-dim and full-blackout forms, which do _exactly_ what they say on the tin, and it's amazing.

I used the ultra-dim for the (white) temp display on my Dyson fan in my bedroom, and the blackout for the brighter-than-the-sun blue LED on my charger brick. Also used the dim one on a smoke detector because my 5-year-old thought it was watching her or something.

They're absolutely great, and you can even keep a couple in your suitcase and fix horrible lights in hotel rooms or AirBNBs if you're so inclined.

I have them.

However after a while it became annoying to try to peel the small stickers off the backing, then fumble to center a small sticky thing over the offending LED.

so... I use painters tape. I started with the blue kind, but switched to black. Easy to tear or cut, easy to size. electrical tape isn't sticky enough.

I choose an appropriate number of layers for the problem.

Most lights just need one layer. Sometimes I need to kill the LED directionality to be acceptable. And some indicator lights need to be dim, not off. Think an HDMI switcher where you need to know which port is active, or router port activity lights.

Sometimes I put a second layer when I need less or no light.

toothpaste works well and it's easy to wipe off

I had a friend once who used to be a security guard. He said one of the things you have to learn is to sleep with your eyes open.

I couldn't tell if he was serious, kidding, terrible or a genius.

...and your comment asks me those questions too! lol :)

Not sure if you can post AMZN links here, but it's this product and its cousin the blackout version: https://amzn.to/3RGV3My

Within reason I think you can basically share any link, but there's probably a much higher than normal concentration of people that would prefer a tracking-less amazon.tld link here than elsewhere.

Ah, sorry about that, forgot my extension did that

I am wondering, why would you share affiliate link (;tag=robstah78-20;) instead of the direct link to the item ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO )? The direct link is just barely longer and probably even faster to make (at least on the desktop)

Are you hoping to just make some money from strangers? You cannot get much commission from the $1.50 item, so I am imagining you hope someone clicks on your link and then buys unrelated expensive item.. This feels really sleazy, does this bring you any actual money?

His other comment mentioned an "extension" so it's possible that he himself isn't responsible.

Thanks for the information. I have a set of stickers for blocking camera lenses on tablets and phones but never thought to look for LED dimming stickers. Seems a bit obvious now but guess I'm so accustomed to using electrical tape that I never gave thought to another solution.

I hate electrical tape. It becomes sticky after some time, when it starts to smear because it got moved or stopped sticking to the surface.

I bought a set of nail polish and use the black one to paint over the LEDs, it even allows you to control how much you want to cover it, in case you still want to have a bit of light to see if it's on or off.

Other colors can be used to mark pins on breakout boards or cables. It's really useful to have around.

The really nice thing about electrical tape is that has an extremely high ignition tempature, and strong voltage resistance, so can throw it on stuff that gets hot (in either sense) and not worry about it. I use it to block off the annoying LED "backlighting" on my PS5... that gets warm enough that I'd be nervous about some tapes. Also handy for actual electrical stuff, like that one speaker wire that loves to comeout of the terminal on my stereo if I look at it funny. I've had some strips of it for years and have never had problems with "smearing" or adhesion.

I've had some success with kapton tape, it drops the 'bright blue' down to a dull orange. Not perfect but its adhesive and knocks the brightness of the led down.

The stuff I use (3M) is opaque to anything you’d reasonably think of doing this to.

Got a name? i'm always looking for a cheaper/better options.

I use sticker note tape for these. There are colord variant of it, which comes blue/red/green/yellow. They are tapes, so you can decide how long it is required, while being easily removable without leftover because it is sticker note.

Something like these: https://images.app.goo.gl/aCK31v9x8Ea2uE7P6

Those tapes (which I sometimes describe as just the sticky part of a sticky note) are also great for labeling when you want something that takes ink/pencil more nicely than masking tape.

Gotta buy better electrical tape. Scotch Super 33+ is amazing.

Tape is really backing (whatever) + glue. The glue can vary a lot in quality and properties.

F.ex. Patched a hole in a Miata top with some duct tape = gone in 2 weeks in high summer heat. Used some "high strength" heat-tolerant duct tape = still there, 3 years of summer and winter later. The latter was ~$5 more expensive.

black gaffer’s tape is perfect for covering LEDs long term without any residue.

maybe i just bought cheap tape, but i've definitely found gaffers tape to leave a residue if left in place for a couple years. especially on electronics that are generating some heat.

The good stuff is like 20 or 30 bucks for a roll. I just pulled off a piece that was stuck to glass for 4 years and it came off residue free.

There’s some really crappy offbrand gaffer tape on Amazon these days. The “pro gaff“ brand which costs around $30 a roll is the good stuff I recommend. (Source: I run a theater and pay hundreds of dollars a year for gaff tape. I have tried a wide variety of brands and price points.)

I would be worried about that.. had some gaffer's tape in my car's interiors, left horrible residue after a year or so.

> I hate electrical tape.

Same. I’ve used aluminum tape to block LEDs, works great.

Oh, yeah. Aluminum foil tape is an all-purpose wonder. It's often used for air ducts, although it isn't what you think of when you say "duct tape."

Duct tape is/was actually duck tape. Duck is the name of a fabric.

Oil based paint sharpies are an alternative and useful for writing things with as well.

Blue Tac?

Seems to be similar to UHU patafix which I also do use to cover LEDs on devices like ESP32 boards.

https://www.uhu.com/en/product-page/patafix-white/35211

I'm not intending to suggest there aren't better solutions than periodically taping & cleaning, but a can of adhesive cleaner stuff will make short work of that mess, worth having.

(The one I use - mainly for barcode etc. stickers with shitty adhesive that doesn't peel off nicely - is by 'Pro Power' which I think is CPC's house brand, so that's not helpful if you're outside the UK.)

I use MG chemicals safety wash in the US -- particularly formulated to be safe on plastics and electronics.

Copper foil tape works well too.

I use blu-tack putty, it’s opaque, easy to apply/remove. Its not flat though

Something similar: I recently bought a white noise machine for sleeping (a short term fix for noise at night). It has a bright blue LED that also lights up the whole room at night. You're literally for sleeping and you're going to illuminate the whole room with blue light?!

One of the Amazon reviews did mention this. But I always see stupid bright LEDs that people haven't covered with tape so there are probably people sleeping with these on at night.

ive done this for all the phone chargers in the house

Please do add your own review. It's bizarre that manufacturers think unnecessary lights, and especially bright blue ones, are a good idea. Manufacturers have fallen a bit too much in love with blue leds.

I've got to admit, the desktop cases I got from Fractal Design also use bright blue leds. I didn't think about it until I had guests sleep in that room.