A few days ago I went to a play at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company It was a one mane show called Just For Us by Alex Edelman. Good show, enjoyed myself. That's not what this is about though. it's about the bathroom stall doors:
If you saw that door handle, what would you assume?
I assumed that it was vacant via the green indicator - which was correct.
I assumed I should put my fingers under the lip and pull the door open. It didn't move. I went to the next stall that was green. Wouldn't open. Then I tried to push the door and it opened.
Wikipedia defines Human factors and Ergonomics as:
Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as human factors) is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Four primary goals of human factors learning are to reduce human error, increase productivity, and enhance safety, system availability, and comfort with a specific focus on the interaction between the human and the engineered system.
Not sure this succeeded on the human error front. There isn't a visual indicator to tell me to push. I can contrive a scenario where someone is assisting someone and needs to pull the door shut and therefor needs the pull handle but I'm not sure that was the rationale there.
On a plus side, there are no gendered bathrooms at this theater. A trend I hope spreads. Full floor to ceiling stalls where everyone gets privacy. It just seems like a more efficient use of limited plumbing space. One line for everyone.
