The podcast devoted to all things design, 99% Invisible, collaborates with Vox Media on a video explaining the backstory to "Norman doors". You know, those infuriatingly unclear doors where you can't tell if you should push or pull. The name honors design kingpin and advocate of human-centered design, Don Norman, for defining the problem that plagues these doors: they lack "discoverability", that is, their function isn't made obvious and "discoverable" to the person wanting to use it.
h/t user "go do it" in the Forum
10 Comments
To doors I'd add hardware and signage. (More often these two, I'd wager.)
Pull bars should be vertical, push bars should be horizontal...I think that's the problem for me...horizontal bars make me want to push.
My favorite comic of all time.
Bars mean pull, pads mean push.
hmm. the goal of a door is not really to let people through, but rather to prevent people from getting in. if they wanted to let people through, they could just have a cased opening. the door on the 10th floor seems to be doing a great job of getting people to reconsider whether they really want into the space.
the case of the door on the 10th floor is interesting, because we would typically want the door to swing in the direction of egress, so push when you're going from inside to out, and pull when you're going from outside to in. that's a very nice door for having less than 50 occupants. i guess the hall was too narrow to have a door swing into it.
the hinges on the door on the 10th floor also swing in both directions. it's interesting people there seem to have a natural preference to pull rather than push, as pushing is easier and the door doesn't get in your way as much. the door in my office was like that for about 2 days. there is a little clip in the head that prevented it from swinging in one direction, which can easily be removed with a screwdriver. that kind of vandalism doesn't require a committee, building maintenance, code reviews, or permission. just take the stupid clip off so the door swings in both directions.
As I've been taught since the first days of architecture school, if you have to use signage that's a failure of design. Every student of design should know about discoverability and feedback. It's absolutely basic to what we do.
Signage around egress is intended for ADA or in emergency conditions such as Exit signs. That's another story.
*Aside from advertisement signage... of course. *
IDK if it's a public door, it needs to be obvious on first use. Those people at the beginning clearly are idiots if they can't get it after how many days....
Either way, this only applies to industrial design, not architecture.
Nate:
It does apply to architecture because we specify the door general design.
We have that responsibility. There is a point where it falls into product design. Also, those doors probably originally swung into the hall way but then reversed for whatever reason.
Yes in that sense it's true that architects pick doors. I just mean as a piece of architecture, Normans ideas don't apply--if you think of most FLW buildings where the front entrance is usually concealed and has to be discovered. Makes a richer work when things aren't always designed for the lowest common denominator. Like a good book or movie...
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