It's not you. Bad doors are everywhere.
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as the short, canonical explainer of Norman doors and affordances, linked in design and UX discussions.
What it is
Vox's Joe Posner, with help from 99% Invisible, explains why bad doors are everywhere. It covers Don Norman's long-running complaint about doors and the idea that good design should not need instructions.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2019 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends WhitneyLand · 2021-10 · on “Magit, the magical Git interface (2017)”
You probably don’t feel like you’re fighting your front door when you walk out of your house or apartment also right? All that means is that git tools, and your front door, work well once you have mastered them. The ease of use and discoverability of tools over the life of their learning curve is what determines if they are a Norman door. For lots of people, using a Unix command line or Git for the first time feels like a Norman door. This is why other interfaces exist (like guis) for the same tools. What is a Normal door - 5 min Vox short [this video]
Recommends crote · 2025-02 · on “The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars”
Yeah, but it's not supposed to. With good design it is immediately obvious whether the door is push or pull - even when the frame doesn't have any clear indications. For example, the door in [0] (apologies for the YT short) has no immediately clear hints if you look at the frame or handle. Both sides look exactly the same, so how are you supposed to know? Add a "push/pull" sticker you'll miss 90% of the time? The Vox vodcast(?) in [1] goes a lot further into the problem, starting from a very similar door. The solution is pretty simple, in hindsight: if they designed the door properly, you won't even be able to pull on a push door. Have a pull handle on the pull side, and a push plate on the
Cites Isinlor · 2019-12 · on “The Cybertruck is not brutalist”
You take position of authority, criticize, but you are not educating. > The fields of art and aesthetics have a long, complex history and have been studied and written upon by thousands of intelligent scholars, designers, artists, philosophers, and religious figures. So, let me ask you, why should I care? I care about design e.g. "The Design of Everyday Things": [this video] But what is it about aesthetics that is not subjective?
Cites gav · 2020-06 · on “Points of contact – a short history of door handles”
I often use doors as the introduction to understand affordances. It's crazy that we've had doors for 5000 years and we still make them hard to open. See "Norman Doors": [this video] The Design of Everyday Things: [LINK]
Cites godelski · 2024-07 · on “Code reviews do find bugs”
Sometimes feature requests are actually bugs and can be illustrative of one not properly understanding design. But I think it is important how user feature requests are interpreted. They have a frustration that you might not be aware of but they aren't aware of all the code and constraints. It can even be in design, which is still important. Very often there is a way to resolve a feature request that is not what the user explicitly asks for. But to do that you have to read between the lines, and carefully. Of course, some people go completely the wrong way with this and cough Apple cough decide that they know what is best for the user. It's totally a hard balance to strike, but I think it is
Cites godelski · 2024-09 · on “The Modern CLI Renaissance”
> If there were some kind of usage study or telemetry This still wouldn't convince me because it's not what my argument is about. (Fwiw, I think one of the reasons BS is upset is how frequent the issue is brought up. You can see his frustration in the GitHub issues too. And how he points to it being at the top of the readme and it still doesn't get through to people. Just like a sign on a door saying pull. There's a reason that doesn't work. Why literate people keep failing. Ask why and how it can be prevented.) I know I'm miscommunicating but I'm really not sure how. Because it isn't about what most people do. It isn't about what most people what. I know this sounds odd, and maybe that's wh