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#normandoors#donnorman#affordances

It's not you. Bad doors are everywhere.

Vox

12M subscribers • 4 videos on Hallway

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  • Recommended by 2 people: 2 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2021 to 2025.

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

10M views10 years ago2 recommendations

Software designSimplicity and complexity

Vox explains the concept of Norman doors and how good design should intuitively guide users without needing instructions.

This video is about doors. Joe Posner investigates, with some help from 99% invisible, a wonderful podcast. Check them out here: 99pi.org Subscribe to our channel here: goo.gl/0bsAjO There's a door on the 10th floor in the Vox Media office I hate so much. You probably know one of these too. But it's not our fault. And luckily, Roman Mars of 99% Invisible magically arrived in my cellphone to send me on a cross-country journey to find out the incredible surprises behind this common complaint: Don Norman started complaining about doors over 25 years ago. Doors shouldn't need instructions – the shape of them can guide you through just fine. So why do so many doors need instruction manuals right on the side of them? When most people complain about something, nothing happens. Don Norman is not most people – he's a psychologist and cognitive scientist. Don Norman thought about, and wrote about his complaints so incredibly thoroughly that he changed the world. 99% Invisible's Roman Mars helps tell the story. Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out vox.com to get up to speed on everything from Kurdistan to the Kim Kardashian app. 99% Invisible is a member of Radiotopia.fm Check out our full video catalog: goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Twitter: goo.gl/XFrZ5H Or on Facebook: goo.gl/U2g06o

Why it's here

2 people recommend this

What people say. Frequently cited by engineers to explain the concept of affordances and intuitive user interface design.

WhitneyLandon Hacker News • Recommends

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 link to this video
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croteon Hacker News • Recommends

On “The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars”

…icker 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 push side. 0: link 1: link to this video…
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Isinloron Hacker News • Mentions

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": link to this video But what is it about aesthetics that is not subjective?
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gavon Hacker News • Mentions

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": link to this video The Design of Everyday Things: link
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godelskion Hacker News • Mentions

On “Code reviews do find bugs”

…e when users suggest methods of resolving the problem. I might throw that in the garbage, but it can often give me better context clues as to what they're trying to ask for and really does tell me if they're thinking hard about the problem that they care about the product. They just don't have the same vantage point that I do, and that's okay. 0 link to this video…
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godelskion Hacker News • Mentions

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…
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u/CreativeCoconutin r/compsci • Mentions

On “Is programming a user friendly and good looking application an art?”

It is as much an art as programming is. But is programming an art? UI Design is just a field you can study and work in as much as programming and engineering and the rest of it is. The reality is, you cannot do it without training. I mean, it is also kind of insulting to all the people whose job consists of designing stuff. I don't mean that you are insulting them, just that the way a lot of programmers of look at this part of application design, kind of is. Look at it the other way around. Imagine someone is a really good at taking pictures and wants something like Instagram. He kinda knows a bit of Python but is not proficient. What would you tell him if he asked you "how can I make a…
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