DD2000 - Objects of Design - The Bad

Push Pull Doors

Push pull doors were invented by Chiu and I-hsin (according to United States Patent 502991) in 1991. These doors I feel are a horrible piece of design, as they have to physically tell you to either push or pull on the door, which in my opinion is just troublesome, as people will be walking through an office in mid thought, or perhaps someone is entering a shop after a long walk and aren't as aware as they'd normally be, and end up coming across an obstacle that requires though.

Doors are important objects in our world, they allow privacy and shelter for rooms and buildings whilst also allowing us to enter and exit at the same time. Doors are a very common thing to come across, they are at every entrance and exit to rooms and buildings, and so you would think that someone wouldn't use such a literal way of labeling whether a person should push or pull a door because it requires conscious thought instead of some subconscious thought. For instance the design below would require slightly less thought, however it is entirely possibly that someone on the pull side will just push without realizing, I know myself that I have done this as well as plenty of other people in the world.

Really doors should require much less thought such as a handle that would feel awkward or ward to try and push on, or additionally, we could implement more automatic doors which require no thought at all.