Bad Designs on Campus - Submission
Which One is for Which???
Problem description: The two buttons controlling the disabled automatic doors found in the intersection between the hallways of EECS and Autolab are confusing and unclear. The poor positioning of the design of the buttons, as shown in figure 1, do not follow the Control-Display Compatibility Principle Colocation as the buttons are positioned on top of each other. The two buttons do not indicate intuitively which of the doors, left or right, that each button opens. The close up image of the buttons in figure 2 also shows how they do not follow the Consistency Principle, as they are located in between both doors. As a result, pedestrians would not know which button to press in order to open the desired doors.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Proposed solution: Following the Consistency Principle and Control-Display Compatibility Principle of Colocation, the buttons should be located closer to their corresponding doors as show in figure 3. This design would give a more intuitive signal to the users of which button they should push to open the intended door. Another simpler solution is to put the two buttons side by side as shown in figure 4. This design would be more intuitive to the users. The left button should open the left door, while the right button should open the right door.
Figure 3
Figure 4
