You’re chatting on the way out of an office building.
You come to a door. It’s locked. Someone shouts over that you need to “press the button” to open it.
To your right 3 boxes are lined up on the wall, coloured kinda like traffic lights.
- 1 is bright red.
- 1 is dull silver.
- 1 is bright green.
You don’t stop to read them. You just make a snap decision and stab a button.
But which one?
Well, many people press the big green box.
Why? Because it is big and green. And green means “Go”!
Unfortunately, this means the maintenance man has to repair the emergency door release button every few weeks.
Any suggestions for solving this fairly common problem?
December 5, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Yep, we have just the thing for you!
December 7, 2008 at 8:19 pm
It’s reminds me of the buttons on some of the commuter trains-the first button is to close the door and the bottom one is to open the door
I have been stuck behind several people who attempt to open the door by pressing the close button
December 8, 2008 at 7:06 pm
They should put the Emergency buttons somewhere else away from the regular button, maybe further below it where there is some space in-between. Or how about changing the green panel to yellow?
December 9, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Shane: replace the ‘open door’ button with a large “push plate switch” more commonly found on disabled toilets and in public areas
I’d ask why their is an “emergency door release” AND “fire” button…. an emergency is an emergency… if the alarm goes off – great!
And it would be silly to have to break both the ‘fire’ and ‘door release’ in an emergency event.
so replace the two colored switches with a single RED emergency/fire button…. and ensure that the push release switch ALWAYS opens the door – and that the door fails-safe for emergencies
Ean: Yeah I always whinge about how un-usable the new toilets on trains are…
everything from the position of the buttons to the meaningless light-show that occurs as you progress through the series of tasks you must complete to achieve the normally quite simple task of shutting and locking a door.
December 12, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Farms, I think you have some great solutions there. I particularly note your ideas from toilets for the mobility impaired (which I admit I have occasionally used in an emergency). The switches, knobs and other ‘interface’ elements are large, obvious and easy to use. Why not apply these ideas across the board?
January 5, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Similar problem here where guests staying at a particular hotel almost have to summon a member of staff to let them out!
http://www.paxton.co.uk/Image%.....006470.jpg
January 8, 2009 at 11:08 am
hmm, these suggestions don’t make any sense to me. I’d say seperate them by purpose the most commonly used ‘open’ button should stay where it is, and the emergency ones place 6 inches or so to the right grouped together, then people will associate the with a ‘special’ purpose. they shouldn’t be really easy to get to; convienient, but not easy.
January 17, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Red is normally associated with an emergency, I’d change the color to red, even though the fire panel is already red. I think it would keep people form hitting it by mistake.