4 ms·

In case the name doesn't ring a bell, The Design of Everyday Things is an extremely readable introduction to usability, and an absolute classic in its field: h

by _0nac 13y ago

In case the name doesn't ring a bell, The Design of Everyday Things is an extremely readable introduction to usability, and an absolute classic in its field: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things You'll never look a door the same way again... particularly if it has a handle but still expects to be pushed open.

millerm 13y ago
"You'll never look a door the same way again... particularly if it has a handle but still expects to be pushed open." Oh yes! It's one of those "WTF" moments and you want to find the company that designed that thing and send them the book. The book is really an eye opener.
bayesianhorse 13y ago
I think the reason "push to open" doors have a handle is that if they didn't have one people wouldn't try to push it.
- PakG1 13y ago
  If you read the book, you'll see there are better ways to prompt someone to push a door open.
adam12 13y ago
Handles help when you want to close the door. I get your point though.
- jkestner 13y ago
  In the book, he's talking about the entry doors in commercial buildings that swing closed. A la that classic Far Side cartoon.
- hack_edu 13y ago
  Actually, the points are about push/pull doors and the choice of fixtures placed as affordances to suggest the appropriate action by the user.
  - anigbrowl 13y ago
    We know that. The GP is pointing out a secondary purpose that is often overlooked. Automatic door closers are subject to failure, and when they're inoperative then having a handle is a good thing. Commercial building owners also like handles because they can be chained shut easily if the tenant stops paying rent, even if the tenant has changed the locks. This is not to dispute the (great) value of the book, but to point out that there's often more than one use case.
taeric 13y ago
Of course, as soon as you have kids and you see them exploring all of the various "door like" things in their environment, you give up on odd pet peeves of door fixations and just get on with the expected. :) (Not sure why, but the amount of discussion "proper" door design gets is a major peeve of mine.)
- Kliment 13y ago
  Proper door design makes a huge difference when a lot of people unfamiliar with said door need to use it in a short period of time and the cost of a delay can be congestion or even injury. Evacuation scenarios, rush hour traffic, black friday sales, that sort of thing. It doesn't make a huge difference to doors only a few people use a couple of times a day. That said, door design is a good example for many other things. To give you a particular one, a certain DVD player/recorder made by Panasonic has two large buttons on the upper corners of its front panel. One is the on/standby button and the other is the eject button. They placed the on/off button right next to the DVD tray, and literally everyone who has attempted to place a DVD in it has accidentally turned it off instead. Given it takes 20+ seconds to power cycle, this is extemely annoying, but of course not painful enough to ditch the whole thing as it otherwise works fine. You don't get used to it either, it's a jarring experience every time. Given neither switch is actually on the PCB and both are wired in, it would have been trivial to flip them around (and one of these days I will do so), but the designers didn't think of it.
  - taeric 13y ago
    In those scenarios, making the door open outwards trumps any handle design. More, it is the expectation for most of us. As for poorly designed power switches. I do not at all dispute the majority of the philosophy of this class. Even plan on taking the class, myself. I just find the door fixation obnoxious. As a counterpoint, I usually reach towards cars. Most are very similar to each other, yet as someone that used to have to rely on rentals, the first 2 minutes in any car are spent making sure I know how to do all of the basics. The myriad ways to control a windshield wiper, adjust the brightness of the inner lights, reset trip timers, etc, is quite impressive. Same for the radio and its highly varied functions.
epo 13y ago
A door handle is a universally recognised dual purpose control, and always works whichever way the door opens. A push plate does not do this. What are they supposed to do, remove them when doors become temporarily uni-directional? The fact that this even needs to be said is a sad comment on people's lack of imagination.
- PakG1 13y ago
  Do you always use only one sort algorithm for all sorting scenarios?

by _0nac 13y ago

millerm 13y ago

"You'll never look a door the same way again... particularly if it has a handle but still expects to be pushed open." Oh yes! It's one of those "WTF" moments and you want to find the company that designed that thing and send them the book. The book is really an eye opener.

bayesianhorse 13y ago

I think the reason "push to open" doors have a handle is that if they didn't have one people wouldn't try to push it.

PakG1 13y ago
If you read the book, you'll see there are better ways to prompt someone to push a door open.

adam12 13y ago

Handles help when you want to close the door. I get your point though.

jkestner 13y ago
In the book, he's talking about the entry doors in commercial buildings that swing closed. A la that classic Far Side cartoon.
hack_edu 13y ago
Actually, the points are about push/pull doors and the choice of fixtures placed as affordances to suggest the appropriate action by the user.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  We know that. The GP is pointing out a secondary purpose that is often overlooked. Automatic door closers are subject to failure, and when they're inoperative then having a handle is a good thing. Commercial building owners also like handles because they can be chained shut easily if the tenant stops paying rent, even if the tenant has changed the locks. This is not to dispute the (great) value of the book, but to point out that there's often more than one use case.

taeric 13y ago

Of course, as soon as you have kids and you see them exploring all of the various "door like" things in their environment, you give up on odd pet peeves of door fixations and just get on with the expected. :) (Not sure why, but the amount of discussion "proper" door design gets is a major peeve of mine.)

Kliment 13y ago
Proper door design makes a huge difference when a lot of people unfamiliar with said door need to use it in a short period of time and the cost of a delay can be congestion or even injury. Evacuation scenarios, rush hour traffic, black friday sales, that sort of thing. It doesn't make a huge difference to doors only a few people use a couple of times a day. That said, door design is a good example for many other things. To give you a particular one, a certain DVD player/recorder made by Panasonic has two large buttons on the upper corners of its front panel. One is the on/standby button and the other is the eject button. They placed the on/off button right next to the DVD tray, and literally everyone who has attempted to place a DVD in it has accidentally turned it off instead. Given it takes 20+ seconds to power cycle, this is extemely annoying, but of course not painful enough to ditch the whole thing as it otherwise works fine. You don't get used to it either, it's a jarring experience every time. Given neither switch is actually on the PCB and both are wired in, it would have been trivial to flip them around (and one of these days I will do so), but the designers didn't think of it.
- taeric 13y ago
  In those scenarios, making the door open outwards trumps any handle design. More, it is the expectation for most of us. As for poorly designed power switches. I do not at all dispute the majority of the philosophy of this class. Even plan on taking the class, myself. I just find the door fixation obnoxious. As a counterpoint, I usually reach towards cars. Most are very similar to each other, yet as someone that used to have to rely on rentals, the first 2 minutes in any car are spent making sure I know how to do all of the basics. The myriad ways to control a windshield wiper, adjust the brightness of the inner lights, reset trip timers, etc, is quite impressive. Same for the radio and its highly varied functions.

epo 13y ago

A door handle is a universally recognised dual purpose control, and always works whichever way the door opens. A push plate does not do this. What are they supposed to do, remove them when doors become temporarily uni-directional? The fact that this even needs to be said is a sad comment on people's lack of imagination.

PakG1 13y ago
Do you always use only one sort algorithm for all sorting scenarios?