I know, I know, this is how “The Design of Everyday Things” starts. The difference is that I found this instance at my local bank. The whole “Wells Fargo experience” is chock full of questionable design actually; I’ve struggled with elements of their web site, physical branch locations and ATM’s.
But it’s always good to catch one of those classic design gotchas in the wild, as it were. So look upon it and know that as long as there are problems out there like this, there’s work for those of us who try to make the world a more user-friendly place.
And yes, every time I leave the bank I pull the damn handle. And that’s because physical affordances are more salient and engaging than labels and signs.
I asked the bank employees how many people pull instead of push, and they just sort of heaved a collective sigh. I took that to mean “a lot”.
I’ve gotten more UX mileage out of that bank than you’d believe…
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I love this post. I am currently working to complete my masters in Instructional Design and Systems Technology. One of my classes is Human Computer Interaction, and I must say my eyes have been opened. I am always aware of my interaction with things especially everyday things as you mention here. Examples I found are things that don't work like you expect such as, commercial coffee makers that never tell you that you need to provide the cup. As well as, incompatible mapping of controls to devices such as Guess which switch control the projector screen?
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