I don’t know if this happens to all y’all, but I always have a hell of a time figuring out which button *opens* the elevator doors and which button *closes* them.
It happens every time I get in an elevator. Invariably, after I’ve already boarded someone runs to make the elevator before the doors close completely. As soon as I see them, I try to be helpful. I go to hit the “door open” button, hesitate, shift my gaze from one to the other in a semi-panic, and then jab the WRONG button.
I think I’ve figured out why I have such trouble discriminating between the two icons: the “door open” button (on the left in this picture) looks to me like the image of a *closed* door, and for some reason the action implied by the outward-facing arrows just doesn’t register with me.
Similarly, the “door close” button on the right, with its two strong vertical lines defining the outer edge of the icon, just seems to me to look like two open doors. And like the other image, I just don’t grok the arrows in the picture.
Is it just me that has this particular problem, or is does this design confuse others as well?
