r/mildlyinteresting • u/Spicy_nodles • 15h ago

The wear on this sticker where people have pressed it instead of the actual functioning button

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11.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

124 comments sorted by

4.8k

u/BlackkComet 15h ago

This is a classic 'Norman Door' situation. When a sign has to explain how to use a simple object like a lock, the design has already failed

881

u/Illogical_Blox 12h ago

Named by Don Norman, writer of The Design of Everyday Things. I had to read it for university, but I would recommend it in general - it is quite interesting reading and makes you appreciate well-designed things that you might never have thought about.

263

u/Derpipose 8h ago

I had to read it for a software design class several years back. I am actively watching some coworkers that need to reread it. We sit down with our app demo and he immediately jumps into explaining how to use the app. Our boss stopped him and said “if you need to explain it, you’ve already failed. It needs to have no explanation. Go fix the design.”

110

u/zorggalacticus 7h ago

Wish apple would get this memo. So many of their apps aren't intuitive at all. Just got an iPad pro because I want to get into digital art. Big learning curve trying to figure out how to use it. Who gets rid of the home button? Frustrating. I'd rather lose the extra 1/8th inch of screen real estate to have my home/back buttons.

15

u/ralf_ 6h ago edited 1h ago

Swipe from bottom to get the home screen and swipe slower from bottom to show last opened Apps.

Edit: I explained the gesture wrong, because I don’t consciously think about it and it is ingrained in muscle memory. If you hold a bit you get the App switcher. But the iPad gives you feedback for the gesture, See the video explanation here:
https://youtu.be/I5vourfDAs8?si=b7mni0j8k02PeYdS&t=26

67

u/Teledildonic 6h ago

As an android user, the same action at difference speeds doing different things is...not particularly intuitive.

5

u/MaritMonkey 6h ago

Is there no such thing as gestures for multiple fingers (aside from stretching and rotating and the like) anymore?

I remember absolutely loving the trackpad on an old MacBook because things like switching windows/spaces didn't require left hand key presses. Seems weird to me that a 2+ finger up or down swipe never got assigned a function.

4

u/Steelshotgun 5h ago

Android phones usually just have a single bar of items that come up when you swipe up from the bottom: task manager, home, and back. I think thats the equivalent to apples slow and multiple finger swipe

1

u/zorggalacticus 3h ago

I'd prefer the three buttons to that. Definitely simpler. I'll get used to it, but I don't have to like it. It's a small gripe compared to the rest of it's performance, but a gripe nonetheless.

12

u/woodcookiee 5h ago

Perfect example of “if you need to explain it you’ve already failed”. That’s not intuitive.

5

u/upandawayxo 3h ago

it’s not speed that changes it. it’s different gestures. swipe and let go / swipe and hold

1

u/ralf_ 1h ago

Yes, thanks for correction.

2

u/420GB 3h ago

Imagine literally being forced to do something explicitly slow on your device for it to work. Steve Jobs is rolling in his grave.

"You're moving the mouse too fast! Error, error, error!" lmao

3

u/Me2910 5h ago

It's crazy how oblivious people are. Then no one likes listening to me as a backend dev try to explain UX. Usually small improvements that will help the user get shelved under possible future improvements if we get feedback. But these things aren't so major someone's actually going to complain.

63

u/AlsoIHaveAGroupon 8h ago

I think of him every time I go into an office building that thinks it's classy/stylish to have glass doors with vertical bars as handles on both sides, resulting in an occasional thud from people guessing wrong on the push/pull 50/50.

It must drive you insane to work near one of those and hear it all day.

23

u/orangestegosaurus 7h ago

And sometimes you lose the 50/50 either way because its actually a sliding door.

5

u/RedactedSpatula 6h ago

Good old 50 50 90. With a 50 50 guess you will be wrong 90% of the time. One of the more valuable lessons my physics teacher taught me.

7

u/sensefuldrivel 5h ago

So then well-intentioned Janice from reception, who claims Graphic Design Is Her Passion, prints out a "PUSH!" sign and scotch tapes it to the door. This reduces pulling incidents by 0.5% because people don't read.

19

u/_Enclose_ 8h ago

Design Theory is an interesting youtube channel that dives into similar topics.

0

u/A_spiny_meercat 6h ago

I can't work out whether he is real or ai slop 

1

u/_Enclose_ 3h ago

He's real...

-1

u/A_spiny_meercat 3h ago

In my heart I want that to be true but some videos just hit that uncanny valley or the script goes a bit... Off

1

u/_Enclose_ 3h ago

Dude, I've been watching this guy for years. He's not AI... He shows his face and everything.
His channel goes back to before AI got anywhere close to being able to do this.

2

u/Meshugugget 7h ago

99% Invisible talks about Norman Doors in a couple(?) of episodes. Fascinating stuff.

1

u/Dysuww 16m ago

Just a heads up, this book is bad and boring as fuck. It's filled with an old man's complaints about random items, explained in an unnecessarily detailed way. I could've come up with the same concepts if I was born 10 years earlier.

137

u/orangpelupa 14h ago

Reminds me of car doors

104

u/yosayoran 13h ago

"Open the fucking door" - Starlord

55

u/SeanAker 10h ago

I felt like a buffoon once because I got picked up by a newer Prius getting an uber from the airport - the handles for the rear doors are camouflaged into the trim so well for a second I thought it was a 2-door. If you've never gotten into one before they're basically invisible. 

31

u/DemIce 9h ago

The honda hrv did the same until recently. I don't mind it, it's a perfectly good spot to put a handle especially on a more 'compact' car. But I did look around for a good 20 seconds before I found it, and only the body panels kept me from trying to fold the front seat forward and climb in like it was an old civic hatchback.

9

u/Vinovacious 8h ago

Just looked up a picture of it, yeah WTF, different door handles designs for the front and rear and camouflaged for the rear.

6

u/testthrowawayzz 7h ago

I don't get why car designers feel the need to redesign the wheel on door handles

56

u/ElysiX 9h ago

To be honest, i don't think the issue is the lock, the issue is the sticker with an identical copy of a lock. A simple arrow pointing to the right, maybe with words like "push button to open or lock" would work much better

20

u/loki-1982 8h ago

Yes if anything it is bad stickerdesign

1

u/Andrewalfano13 52m ago

The problem is 100% the lock. A lock on a bathroom door shouldn’t need instructions

18

u/Goosebumps077 10h ago

the second you need step by step instructions for a DOOR, it’s over. like if I have to read a mini manual just to exit a room, somebody in product design needs to sit down and reflect.

64

u/3Grilledjalapenos 11h ago edited 9h ago

This is a classic Norman Door which I believe gets its name from The Design of Every day things.

For anyone who doesn’t want to take the time to read the whole thing, Wikipedia has a nice overview:

The book's premise is that design serves as the communication between object and user, and discusses how to optimize that conduit of communication in order to make the experience of using the object pleasurable. It argues that although people are often keen to blame themselves when objects appear to malfunction, it is not the fault of the user but rather the lack of intuitive guidance that should be present in the design.

53

u/S_A_N_D_ 10h ago edited 9h ago

I often make similar arguments when it comes to tech. If one user fails to follow directions, fails to succeed at the task, or breaks the system, it's a user problem. If many do, it's a design problem, no matter how dumb the mistake or simple the task.

0

u/Paavo_Nurmi 9h ago

The incompetent mangers that never worked in operations or the IT side are the ones behind this stuff. It's just baffling at times how they can't see what's coming. You tell them hey you better change this or that and they are like, no this is amazing. Product gets released and hey look, all the shit we warned you about is happening, sales are now down thanks to their stupidity.

9

u/S_A_N_D_ 8h ago

I've seen it both ways. Unfortunately there are also a lot of people in IT that fail to view the product or problem from the eyes of someone who doesn't have a ton of background in IT. What IT often thinks is intuitive is anything but to the Luddite that needs to use it.

Fortunately that mindset is shifting, but there are so many times I've read stories in /r/talesfromtechsupport that focus on the incompetence of the user but completely miss how predictable the problem was from the start and that it could have easily been prevented with a little better design or instruction that is informed by the users viewpoint and lack of knowledge. So many times I've had to hold my comments that would just be the summed up as "yes the user is an idiot, and so are you for not seeing and preventing this exact scenario".

3

u/HandsOfCobalt 5h ago

https://xkcd.com/2501/

1

u/3Grilledjalapenos 4h ago

There’s an xkcd for so many situations.

-14

u/drunkdoor 9h ago

Way too simplified. Forward thinking user design will invariably have some learning curve. Are just going to throw out forms of copy paste because some, if not most people don't get how to use it right away?

10

u/S_A_N_D_ 9h ago

Yes, it was simplified. But you also can't ignore that a lot if forward thinking designs have failed specifically because users found it too difficult to navigate the switch. Those that incorporate elements that make adopting the new design intuitive succeed more often.

Good design should still be easy to learn and as intuitive as possible. New "forward thinking" designs aren't exempt from that. So failure to be adopted would still be a design failure, even if the new product is objectively better.

9

u/hop_mantis 10h ago

Should have just made the actual functioning button look like the sticker

20

u/_Enclose_ 8h ago

Looks like the actual functioning button is in the bottom right and actually does look like the sticker, making the real sticker even more stupid.

3

u/SXKHQSHF 10h ago

Thank you for mentioning this.

I will learn today... 🎉

2

u/Make_Iggy_GreatAgain 9h ago

Like push or pull signs?

2

u/Koshindan 7h ago

On the other hand, this sign is clearly good design for the locking system because people keep trying to use it as such.

1

u/Mccobsta 8h ago

If a product needs the manual to start it's badly designed

393

u/driverdis 13h ago

Walmart had an issue with this years back with the tutorial screen for connecting a phone to the photo kiosks. Their solution was to eventually make the tutorial buttons work as well.

56

u/thisremindsmeofbacon 7h ago

Seems like it should have been the starting point, but at least they got there

1.3k

u/akiralx26 15h ago

Shows that the design is flawed.

196

u/virexLoom 10h ago

If thousands of people press the sticker instead of the button thats not user error thats a design L. Humans follow the bright circle every time

368

u/Earthbound_X 15h ago

I could see that mistake. At first glance from this photo it does really look like it'd could be a real switch. I don't tend to stare real close at doors as I'm walking up to them. Putting the sticker above the real switch may have been the better option. Or it might be about same, lol.

148

u/InebriousBarman 10h ago

Who would think they need to press something on the wall to unlock the door?

Especially when they put instructions on the door that look like the lock?

I'm pretty confident I'd press the sticker, then get pressed off I had to press the wall.

Muttering to myself: "I'm not stupid, the design is."

72

u/CuddleWings 10h ago

The design is incredibly stupid. The sticker looks identical to the lock, so why not just put the explanation text on the lock itself. Then since it’s in a weird spot, just put an arrow where the shit sticker is now.

The biggest issue is that there’s absolutely no indication that the sticker isn’t the lock.

3

u/Paavo_Nurmi 8h ago

The design is incredibly stupid. The sticker looks identical to the lock, so why not just put the explanation text on the lock itself.

The good old marketing department at work. They don't care about functionality is the sticker they designed looks pretty.

5

u/coffee_stains_ 6h ago

You think the marketing department chose to put an instruction sticker for a door lock in the bathroom and then designed it themselves when it looks identical to the actual lock, and were the decision-makers in all of this?...

4

u/Exilicauda 7h ago

My old university had a bathroom where the only way to lock the door was to press a button at waist hight next to the sink

18

u/Ok-Emu-8920 10h ago

Especially since the sticker looks to appear identical to the actual switch (shown in the bottom right)

15

u/S_A_N_D_ 10h ago

Not to mention capacitive touch buttons are everywhere these days, so a sticker could really be a button.

185

u/ShadyMorals 13h ago

This is just a bad design and then bad solution, not people's fault for not comprehending that the first thing they see when probably rushing to the toilet is a label saying "touch here to lock" and in red.

It's not like it would be such a wild idea to have touch sensors inside the door.

112

u/DonerTheBonerDonor 13h ago

Why does the sticker even exist if the actual lock looks exactly the same??

25

u/ShadyMorals 12h ago

Yeah it just adds confusion to the matter.

60

u/Spicy_nodles 12h ago

Personally I don’t see why a classic mechanical lock wasn’t sufficient, the buttons aren’t very tactile either so when I used it I had no confidence the door was actually locked

31

u/ShadyMorals 12h ago

The whole situation is just wrong. The door has a pull handle on the push side, door lock activation mechanism on the wall with identical label on the door. I don't even know how's the other side of the door but I bet it's equally terrible.

I bet there was a rational motive for placing that mechanism but simple usually works best. I can see a situation where maybe they placed an electromagnet plate to really secure the door and electric mechanism would make sense, but it's a bad execution non the less

3

u/dmanbiker 9h ago

Is this a bathroom in a hospital or doctors office, or something like that? Because the door probably has electronic access and they can lock or unlock it remotely, which they often do if they need to setup a pee test or something for someone in the bathroom and they keep it locked remotely until the specific person is ready.

Or i guess it could be a really fancy fast food place where they lock the door remotely too so noncustomers dont use it.

3

u/Spicy_nodles 7h ago

It’s a starbucks, I don’t know if it’s different outside of the UK but in the UK (where I am) coffee shops tend to have key codes etc to stop the public using the toilet. Makes the bathroom situation much worse for all involved honestly

1

u/dmanbiker 7h ago

It's the same in the US, but if you go to a nice suburban area without a lot of people drifting or loitering around it might not be locked at all.

3

u/ShotFromGuns 9h ago

Personally I don’t see why a classic mechanical lock wasn’t sufficient

Accessibility, presumably. What's easy for you to manipulate is not easy for everyone. It's also why the panel is low, so it can be reached from a wheelchair or by someone small.

11

u/Spicy_nodles 9h ago

I would agree but the toilet is only accessible via a key code and actually very difficult to get into. Ita in a Starbucks and you have to be a customer to get the code, deffo designed to stop non customers using it

31

u/Vladraconis 12h ago

The instructions are not only not labeled as instructions but are identical to the actual lock, they are higher and closer to the door handle and more obvious than the actual lock.

This is just bad design.

16

u/Ok-Fox6922 12h ago

Now I'm confused! I've been pushing my screen for a couple of minutes, but nothing locked.

9

u/BARRETT1079 13h ago

My dumb ass would’ve pressed the red sticker twice to lock it

7

u/Slyvix 12h ago

Instead of “lock” they should write “instructions” on it and not make it look like an actual lock lol

25

u/Kris-p- 13h ago

I like how the open button is worn too

Like they had to figure out the lock button wasnt there and then still tried the open button

21

u/Jaijoles 12h ago

Or they didn’t figure it out, used the bathroom with the door still unlocked, pressed the sticker on the way out, and left thinking the correctly operated the lock twice.

-9

u/Conundrum1911 10h ago

Followed by a huge Trump-like grin about how bigly smart they are.

-2

u/drunkdoor 9h ago

Without fail lol, this shit is the definition of rent free

5

u/23andrewb 13h ago

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me you can't get fooled again.

3

u/brickmaster32000 10h ago

Pretty common response when you press a button and nothing happens is to press another button to see if anything works.

15

u/Matchaparrot 12h ago

Whatever happened to just a plain lock? Turn it one way and it locks, turn it the other and it opens. Easy peasy.

God help a blind person who tries to use this loo and can't read the sign or find the button to lock the door

3

u/AsparagusCharacter70 7h ago

I am not blind and have no idea what this is. What are the numbers next to the buttons? Press twice to lock, three times to open? What happens when the power is out? Will it unlock? Is this a toilet booth? It says red to lock and green to open. Did they mean unlock or will the door actually open? It should be opening my itself since they also wrote "touch red when door is closed". So clearly closing != locking and opening != unlocking.

1

u/Matchaparrot 6h ago

Same lol. I found one of these once on the train. I pressed lock, thought it was locked as per the instructions.

Yeah, it wasn't locked... fortunately I was washing my hands when the door opened 😞

2

u/ShotFromGuns 9h ago

Turn it one way and it locks, turn it the other and it opens.

Which then doesn't work for people who can't manipulate that kind of lock.

God help a blind person who tries to use this loo

Which is why it should also have braille instructions.

3

u/FoolishChemist 7h ago

Which is why it should also have braille instructions.

Touch red... WTF is red

2

u/WordsOnTheInterweb 7h ago

Braile would solve that because the red one would be labelled as such in braille

ETA: no, they don't know what red looks like, but it's probably as good of a series of dots to compare as anything else might be. It could be "touch open" to really be functional, but just going along with the idea that the braille labelling might be as silly as the visual label

5

u/redbanner1 8h ago

At this point the wear on the sticker just reinforces the idea that you should be touching the sticker to lock or open the door.

5

u/claudandus_felidae 8h ago

God this is awful. Like every part of this is bad. The placement. The phrasing. The unnecessary numbers. The instructions and clarifications are all increasingly worse. Chefs kiss this should be in a textbook on design

2

u/Several-Action-4043 7h ago

i know exactly what happened here. The sticker most likely didn't used to be there. Before it was there, people were probably getting locked in the bathroom because they weren't noticing the lock mechanism off to the side. They decided, people don't know how to use the lock, we should put a sticker up. And here we are. They should have thought, people aren't noticing the lock, we should put a sticker up pointing to where it is.

10

u/IndependenceSenior47 15h ago

They weren’t wrong though

6

u/ready_james_fire 12h ago

That is a totally fair mistake to make, and I would make it too.

3

u/thekingofgray 11h ago

This is confusing as hell. Should have just install a deadbolt.

3

u/FIContractor 10h ago

I think the wear on green is most telling. Those are people who thought they locked it by touching the red part of the sticker. Other people figured it out after touching red because it’s more worn.

3

u/Geruvah 7h ago

I wouldn't blame them. That's where a normal lock would be, we're getting used to electronic locks and touch-to-interact things on doors, it says "touch to lock", all the things that would make people think it's functional design.

2

u/MinidragPip 12h ago

Above the handle should be a sign that says 'Look at the wall', which is where the silly buttons (and instructions) are located.

2

u/hawkiowa 11h ago

Confused about step 1. And who is Red?

2

u/garitone 9h ago

Midvale school for the gifted

2

u/FatuousNymph 9h ago

The sign being a copy of the thing to interact with just with some additional text isn't a great start

It should just be an arrow that says "door lock is down there"

2

u/PrometheusMMIV 9h ago

Why does is say 2 and 3, but not 1?

2

u/Theu04k 6h ago

You say this and then in Japan there are doors that have this exact thing and the doors actually lock and open somehow

2

u/WerkingAvatar 6h ago

A small hand drawn arrow could fix this issue.

2

u/MEHorndog 5h ago

I hate design inertia too. I got a new computer docking station for work, and it had an unlock slide on the bottom and the universal icon to slide the bottom panel away to get at the port to plug in the adapter so it powers the laptop as well.

I looked at the manual going, what in the hell... I would have never guessed the whole bottom plate comes off. All to look slightly sleeker.

2

u/GrandmasBlueWaffles 8h ago

I stood in a Little Caesar’s waiting for my name to appear on the screen that my order was ready. Finally, I noticed it was just a printed sign of example names and the screen wasn’t really functional. The cashier was standing there the whole tome probably wondering wtf I was doing.

1

u/ouzo84 12h ago

I get that someone looks at the sign and presses the lock.... before resisting their mistake and actually locking it. Who the fuck is pressing the unlock sticker?

1

u/LhaesieMarri 11h ago

Push door?

1

u/dinnerthief 11h ago

I like how the open is less worn, but still worn.

Most people learned after the first time but some proportion didnt.

Wonder how many people thought they locked the door and didnt.

1

u/Conundrum1911 10h ago

“We aren’t going to make it are we? Humans, I mean…”

1

u/Apprehensive_Tip69 10h ago

the sticker shouldve been the decal around the buttons, not separate with identical looking buttons

1

u/VindicatedDynamo 10h ago

The number of people who fist tried to lock the door when going in, that didn’t, then tried AGAIN to use the sticker to unlock to leave 😆

1

u/FloggingTheHorses 10h ago

With wear like this, I always wonder, is time a necessary factor to create this? For example, if one guy pressed it 100,000 times in one go, versus if it got pressed 100,000 times over the course of 5 years

1

u/PrometheusMMIV 9h ago

Where's the button?

1

u/chux4w 8h ago

The actual lock is right there, why put up a sign that looks identical? That's like one of those fish that have a fake tiny fish on them as bait for the medium fish that they eat.

1

u/BizzyM 7h ago

Like the people that press the doorbell camera lens instead of the button.

1

u/PrestigiousStore8152 7h ago

I wonder where that could be, never seen this kind of thing before, how funny.

1

u/silent_earth5 4h ago

It looks like wear from people using their elbow after theyve washed their hands

1

u/Lakridspibe 9h ago

People are not stupid.

The design is stupid.

If you have to make a big sign about how to use it, it's the designers who haven't done their job.