Design Diary — Panic Bar on the Door
The location:
The emergency door in the AT&T Conference, Austin, TX (USA)
General Comment:
The perceived affordance of doors is excellent. The doorknob has the perceived affordance of graspability. The doors exhibit excellent design strategy for dealing with real behavior by the use of the proper affordances coupled with a graceful signifier, the golden doorknob, which indicates where to pull.
Problem
But there should be panic bars to push directly and open the doors outward, while it is a door that needs to pull them inward. Imagine in a fire and other emergencies, people usually panic and run for the exits. They would die if encountering exit doors that opened inward because they would keep trying to push them outward, and when that failed, they would push harder.
People realized the importance of Panic bars based on several tragedies, notably an accident at Victoria Hall in England in 1883, when 183 children died because a door had been bolted at the bottom of a stairwell. Then governments began passing laws to enforce minimum standards for building safety, especially for the building exits. National building codes required fire and emergency exits at the end of the 20th century.
Redesign
The golden doorknobs should be replaced by crash bars. The crash bar is a type of door opening mechanism which allows users to open a door by pushing a bar. The exit of UTA is a good example to represent crash bars. The doors can be pushed outward anytime to prevent people’s fleeing accidents indoor. The black bar indicates people where to push with good affordance. Meantime, the building is restricted from 5 PM to 7 AM. The one-side door can ensure safety, both in terms of streamlining evacuation, as well as in non-emergency situations.
Reference:
Norman, D. (2013). The design of everyday things: Revised and expanded edition. Basic Books.
