Not a good design in that it evolved back in the early sixties and did not change much until the NG came along.
Putting the pressurization panel up in the top right corner has caused more than one oxygen mask deployment over the years, as well as contributing to the Helios disaster. Much as I love Boeing aeroplanes, by today's standards the B737 jurassics and classics are crude devices.
Comparing the B737 cockpit design with even such types as that bloody awful Bae146 - which also stuck the pressurization in the same place as Boeing - and we see how much better warning systems became with clearly annunciated captions, simple switch logic, 'quiet dark cockpit' design etc.
In later types they have gone even further to make it more difficult to overlook essential items.
My most recent aeroplane was so good in this regard that it could be flown with NO checklist (though of course we had one and used it) and about all that you could get wrong would be the speeds and flap for takeoff.