Some doors are pushed when they should be pulled. This happens so often that designers have a name for it: a door that gives the wrong instruction through its shape is called a Norman door, after the writer who complained about them.
The problem is never the user. A flat plate says push, because a flat plate offers nothing to hold. A vertical bar says pull, because a bar is shaped for a hand to grip. When a door has a bar on the side that must be pushed, it is telling you one thing with its shape and the opposite thing with a small sign, and the shape wins every time. People do not read doors. They look at them.
The lesson travels well beyond doors. If a product needs a label telling people how to use it, the label is a patch over a design decision. Lift buttons that need an arrow explaining which way is up, taps that need a note about which is hot, forms that need a line saying 'do not write in this box' — each one is a record of something that could have been shaped differently.
This is a useful habit of mind for anyone building anything, including a school website or a classroom routine. When you find yourself adding an instruction, pause and ask whether the instruction is fixing a problem or hiding it. Sometimes a sign is genuinely needed. Quite often, the sign exists because changing the shape was harder than printing a notice.
Vocabulary in this text
- complain /kəmˈpleɪn/ — to say that you are not happy about something
- offer /ˈɔfɚ/ — to say you are willing to give or do something
- explain /ɪkˈspleɪn/ — to make something clear to someone
- tap /ˈtæp/ — the part you turn to get water
- useful /ˈjusfəl/ — helpful for a purpose
- habit /ˈhæbət/ — something you do regularly, often without thinking
- include /ˌɪnˈklud/ — to have something as a part
- notice /ˈnoʊtəs/ — to see or become aware of something
- queue /ˈkju/ — a line of people waiting