Don Norman, Door Locks and Dance Clubs

Don Norman took some time away from User Experience 2003 London to talk to UCLIC students and faculty about his recent theme of emotional design. Most of what he talked about is in the aforelinked essay, so I won’t get into any specifics, but I would like to summarize his main points. In a nutshell:

• Sometimes it’s not enough to make things work well. They also have to be fun.
• Sometimes it’s more important to make things fun than to makes things work well.
• We’re selling HCI wrong. It’s shouldn’t be about usability as much as user experience. If we’re going to make a difference, we need to talk the language of business. Consequently, it doesn’t matter if you have wonderful [usable] products if you’re not making money.

It sounded good and reasonable to me except for the business point, which is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I may have more to say on that another day.

The night before his talk, I thought I’d page through The Design of Everyday Things for some pre-lecture inspiration. A few hours later, while walking through my residence hall, Langton Close, I realized that I could finally unlock all the doors without thinking much about it. This inspired me to write an essay on door locks which I present here in shameless Don Norman style:

Generally, mechanical door locks are horribly designed. When I checked into my new student accommodation for the first time, I was handed a set of three keys: one for the reception door, one for my flat door and one for my room door. Each lock works in a completely different way. The reception door lock must be turned slightly clockwise to be opened. When I arrive at my flat, the door lock must be turned counter-clockwise half a rotation to be opened. Finally, my room door lock must be turned a full counter-clockwise rotation to be opened. On top of these differences, the key must be inserted with the teeth pointing in a specific direction (depending on whether you’re locking or unlocking) and returned to a position in order to be released, which may or may not be the same position that it was inserted.

In order to use all of the doors seamlessly, I have to remember all the differences between the ways they work. When I first moved in, I fumbled around for a few seconds at each door. But after living here for three weeks, I’m finally able to unlock each door without thinking about it much.

Why should it take me several weeks simply to lock and unlock doors? Clearly, there is a widespread design flaw among door locks: a complete lack of standardization. In The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman notes a key advantage of standardization: “No matter how arbitrary the standardized mechanism, it only has to be learned once.” If door locks were standardized, I would hardly need to think when opening each door lock. Additionally, I would be able to use the same locking/unlocking technique on every mechanical door lock in London! Unfortunately, this is not the case.* Door locks are made by thousands of different companies, each with their own unique design. Perhaps someday, more lock makers will realize the benefit of standardization, more door locks will work the same and people will operate more mechanical door locks with ease.

On a somewhat unrelated note, the night after Don Norman’s talk, I had my first London nightclub experience at Fabric. It was about what I expected: excellent music, great atmosphere and absolutely friggin’ packed. I stayed from 10-2, when I got smushed like a sardine and decided I’d rather die on the streets of London than get trampled by a mad rush of clubbers. And I’m sorry, but moving around in a 2 square foot space is not my idea of dancing. What can I say? I’m a dancing machine; I need more space than that.

---

*Increasingly, electronic and keycard door locks are becoming more common, which are generally sometimes easier to use. However, their use is far from prevalent, and it appears mechanical door locks will be used for many years to come.

Go back to the top of this entry ↑

Comments are now closed for this entry

• Home
• Archives
• About
• Projects
• Contact

Skip to main content

Edit