Please Use Other Door

At a local breakfast spot I stood outside and observed people attempting to open the door.

In the span of a few minutes, a dozen people went through the entrance, and the majority reached out with their right hand and pulled the handle on the door.

It didn’t open.

Eventually they pulled the handle on the other door and it opened.

Only 90% of people are right handed, but 100% of people that see a pull handle on a door tend to pull on the handle. If that doesn’t work, most will next try pushing the handle, braving a The Far Side Comic Strip moment (a student pushing a door with a Pull handle at the Midvale School for the Gifted).

The last thing anyone does when walking up to an entrance door during business hours is to read the instructions: Please Use Other Door.

Removing the pull handle and the Pull sign on the permanently-locked door is one way to improve this entryway.

People should be able to use a door during business hours with their eyes closed.

A door that gives the wrong signal and needs a sign to correct it is known as a Norman door.

Don Norman , author of The Design of Everyday Things, explains Norman doors in this 5-minute Vox clip on YouTube It's not you. Bad doors are everywhere.

#humancentereddesign