#1: Shower Faucet
Problem
As seen in the figure, the shower faucet has hot on the right and cold on the left. Intuitively, because the handle is on the right when the shower is off, I would assume that the farther left you go, the colder it would get. However, it works the opposite way, where the shower starts cold and becomes hotter as you you turn the handle in the on direction. In addition, due to my own prior knowledge and experience where my shower at home goes in the opposite direction -- from hot to cold as you turn the handle in the on direction -- this always confuses me at the start of every semester.
Usability Dimensions
- Learnability: Learnability suffers the most from this problem as it is confusing at first use, resulting in a startling few seconds of one's shower
- Efficiency: Efficiency can suffer if it takes a few tries to get used to the mechanism as it opposes the signage and past experience. But once muscle memory kicks in, it is not hard to use and you eventually ignore the signage
- Safety: Safety does not suffer as the main result is a shock in temperature which is not harmful, but uncomfortable, which has to do with ergonomics
Solution
A solution to this problem is changing the signage so that it shows a gradient going from blue to red from right to left, instead of a fixed red and blue on either side. An example of this way can be shown in Figure 2 below. This way you know that turning the handle towards the left will make the shower hotter
#2: Door Lock
Problem
This may look like a simple door lock, but it has one key problem. Either, you have to keep your door unlocked all the time (the second setting), or you have to keep your door locked all the time (the first setting). There is no in between like your normal front door, which can lock from the inside and outside with your key. The key to your dorm room can only be used to unlock, and only when the door is in the always-locked setting.
Usability Dimensions
- Learnability: There are many issues with learnability, here. Primarily, I didn't know the door could even be in an always-unlocked setting until someone told me how it worked. There are no affordances here that let you know how you can use this lock and unlock mechanism.
- Efficiency: This solely unlocked vs locked feature is really inefficient because it is really easy to forget that you locked your door and then forget your key because you believe your door is unlocked, which requires a whole process for getting a master key and then unlocking your door which no one wants to do at 3am or at any point in the day. Keeping your door unlocked always is very efficient for going in and out, but that comes with safety costs
- Safety: There are safety costs associated with only being able to keep your door fully unlocked. Situations such as sleeping at night or leaving your room for the day with valuable possessions in your room becomes quite risky. However, because of the inefficiency costs of the system, no one opts for locking their door so the safety costs remain.
Solution
The solution to this would be to have a normal door lock where you can lock and unlock the door from the inside or the outside. Another solution could be to have your door be accessed through your ID now that MIT has started using mobile ID since you generally take your phone everywhere you go, though that comes with costs as well. For example, if you're just leaving your room to go to the bathroom, you may not want to take your phone with you which could lead you to potentially being locked out.
#3: Pappalardo Lab Doors
Problem
This is a classic problem of a Norman Door (two in fact!) right on MIT campus. The problems here are two fold: individually with each door and the doors in combination. First, opening the doors individually can be confusing because it isn't clear from the door handles whether the door is a push or a pull and the signage is quite reflective and also high up above the door handle so it's easy to miss if you're walking fast. Second, when we consider the doors together, the first door is a pull door whereas the second one is a push which again makes it confusing because even when you "learn" the first door, it doesn't apply to the second. The design isn't consistent.
Usability Dimensions
- Learnability: It's really easy to mistake a push for a pull and vice versa when you first encounter the doors, due to the lack of good affordances as mentioned above, so learnability suffers here.
- Efficiency: Efficiency suffers because you lose time when you accidentally push instead of pull and vice versa. In addition, it is very frustrating when this occurs which can also affect your efficiency as you try to wrangle with this door on multiple consecutive tries.
- Safety: There could potentially be safety issues in the case of an emergency such as a fire in which people need to exit quickly and instead they are hampered by these Norman doors.