CHAPTER 5 Interaction Design

Doors let people into spaces. That’s what people are looking for when they come up to a door, whether it’s made of wood, metal, glass, or some unknown material: Where is the handle, and how do I use it to unlatch and push open the door? As Don Norman has pointed out in his book The Design of Everyday Things (1988), even such an obvious and simple user need is easily defeated by poor design.

Norman (1988, 3–4) illustrates his point with an amusing anecdote of a friend “trapped” in the doorway of a European post office. The door in question was part of an outside entryway (a row of six glass doors), with an identical internal entrance beyond. As the man entered through the leftmost pair of doors, he was briefly distracted ...

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