IH01-EshaDatta

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

Good Design – Bathroom Lock

This is the bathroom door lock in the International House bathroom. From the picture, you can see that in the back there is a small rotating handle which locks and unlocks the door. In the back, there is a small circle which changes color based on the position of the handle.

The main problem with bathroom doors is that it is very difficult to tell when the restroom is occupied or unoccupied. I have often seen people get confused in the restroom and sometimes a line forms even when there are stalls available.

This design solves this problem by providing feedback to the user about the state of the lock. There is a small circle on the front of the lock which changes color depending on the position of the locking mechanism. When the door is in the locked position, the circle is red and when the door is in the unlocked position, the circle is green. This design takes advantage of cultural affordances since we associate red with stop and green with go. It is also a very elegant and simple solution since it is purely mechanical and requires no additional technology. The only additional step in creating this lock was creating a circle and painting certain parts different colors. In addition, it is also very clear how to lock this door as the shape of the handle affords turning.

Bad Design – My Closet

This is the closet in my room at the International House, designed to store clothes, accessories, and other items. From the picture, one can see that there are two horizontal bars installed in the closet, for the user to hang clothes on. There are also two shelves in the back, one at about knee level and another much higher up.

This closet is very deep, but the designer was unable to find an effective way to use all of the available space. There is really no sense in putting two bars in the closet. If you attempt to hang clothes on both of these bars, there is no way that you can access the clothes on the back bar since the front clothes will be blocking your way. In addition, the shelves will also be blocked so that only one quarter of the available space can be easily accessed.

In addition, there is no sense in putting a lock on this closet door. There is no need for a lock on a closet assuming that there is a lock on the room door, and most users will state that they do not have a need for a closet lock. In fact, this lock becomes a nuisance when the user accidentally shuts the door in a certain way and locks it so they are unable to access their clothes. To avoid this error, someone has placed tape over the lock, but this does not seem to be an effective solution.

Rather than having two sets of bars, it would make more sense to have a bar that ran along the back and then curved along the side. This solution would allow for better use of the available space and allow the user easy access to all of the stored items. In addition, it would be best if the lock was removed entirely from the closet door.