The Door and the Message

I reached Jaipur today. I am here for a family get together and my eye looking for design implications in the real life did not disappoint me.

The first thing to notice, was the entry door to the Rest room at the Departure section of the airport. This is a new airport, developed not long ago. The entry door had a handle, indicating a Pull behavior required from the user (here - passenger). The handle on a door also indicates the door being heavy and requires considerable force. Therefore the user needs to push the door at a certain area helped by the handle. 

Using these ideas in my mind, I first applied the pull principle, and it didn't open. I thought that the door is closed for repair or other personnel usage. I even enquired with the security of the airport for the same. 

Then I came back to try the push model. Suddenly a large man barged in from behind and opened the door by pushing the handle. Push worked.

But this made my mind wonder - Why the need to have a handle for a door which requires a push model. The door for this rest-room was not heavy at all. If there would have been no handle on the door, my mind would certainly agree for me to use the push mechanism. Having a handle created a confusion. A confusion that arises because of the inherent memory of the Push or Pull mechanism and the physical object that ascertains that behavior. Do we need that handle ?

Interesting, isn't it ?

The second event. I saw a sign board inside the wash-room that said - "Paying Bribe is Wrong" or something near to that. This again sparked a thought in my head. Why do we need people to be aware of message like this in the wash-room of all the places. And it brought me an interesting inference. At the time, when a user is in the wash-room, he / she feels relived and relaxed. At that state of mind, the user is gullible to accept any ideas. With mirrors inside a wash-room, the message is reinforced more prominently. The user sees himself  in the mirror, and becomes a judge instead of being judged. The message of "Not paying bribe" strikes more sharply than it being at any other place.

Two different events, and two different outcomes - speaks at length about human behavior and the way things around us influence action from human. 

Signing off for now, till I find something interesting to share. 

Do we deserve this ?

The Telegraph newspaper in Kolkata carried this news on Monday morning (8th November 2010) in the Metro edition of the paper. The news on the front page of Metro highlights the plight of a Bangladeshi national stuck in Kolkata Airport with a dead body of his uncle for more than 24 hours and been harassed by the "customer-centric" behavior of airport authorities and police department.
It throws open very important questions in front of us. The news channels are filled with pictures of how we treated the President of a big and powerful nation with red carpets, traffic freeways and best of our behaviors. And then you see this news about another foreign national, but without the designation of a high profile position. Do we deserve this or, do we deserve to do this to another guest. To get a decent humane behavior from authorities, do we need to carry the high profile designation with us. Or we are so blinded by the aura of a celebrity that we just need to impress them with our fake and camouflaged intentions of behaving best with them. This story is important, and is not the only one that shows to the world that we are not really what we do to a high profile guest in actuality. I know similar type of incidents have happened to fellow citizens of this great nation, but as a part of our culture, dont we subscribe to the philosophy of "Atithi Devo Bhavah"  or Guest is God. Is this philosophy lost in the advertisements of Aamir Khan talking sense on the television or its a part of our greater evil design to lure innocent tourists.

To read the news in the above article in Telegraph newspaper, follow the link :-
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101108/jsp/calcutta/story_13150408.jsp