Good design of everyday items is not just more convenient for users and makes their lives easier, it also saves lives every day. When we look around at the world around us and see all the things people have invented for themselves to use, it's amazing to think about how each item has been through its own historic, iterative process of improvement. Often, however, that includes a process of trial and error in which those items weren't always so easy to use, or (more importantly) so safe.
The Life-changing
The MMR vaccine is now often manufactured with dimethylmercury in order to prevent the serum from molding on the shelf before its distributed (this is not the same mercury that causes mercury poisoning).
Over the counter medications are now produced with a film and paper liner in addition to the plastic wrapper and cap to prevent anyone tampering with the medication after production and before consumption.
McDonalds and other restaurants now serve their coffee and other hot beverages with a CAUTION HOT symbol on the cup to warn consumers that the beverage is too hot to drink and might burn them.
And, as it turns out, doors have also been through their own "glow-up" journey. According to Donald Norman, doors in traditional office buildings and other corporate settings used to have doors that opened inward or had handles that turned. Again, this could be potentially annoying if you have your hands full or are late for a meeting. However, the design of these doors had a much more sinister result. Designers observed that in buildings with these types of doors where fires broke out, people were trapped inside the burning rooms due to their inability to open the doors. This is because when people are panicked or frenzied, they lose their ability to reason and follow basic directions and commands and instead follow their basic instinct lizard brain. This is the process that can result in stampedes at concerts or people being trampled at stores on Black Friday.
The designers who realized this came up with a better design for doors. Most modern doors now have what are called "crash bars" - the long, metal bar across both sides of the double-sided doors in modern office buildings - which is meant to open when pressed against.
This is because if people are stampeding away from a fire, or if they are fumbling frantically to get away, the door will more easily facilitate escape.
It turns out the safety placards on airplanes have a long and interesting history of being re-designed in order to protect people that take airplanes in the result of a crash (The podcast 99% Invisible has a GREAT episode about this, here: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/in-the-unlikely-event/). It also turns out that when they are designed in such a way that they are easy to follow, they save lives. Placards with relatable, less silly graphics, and a minimal amount of text, have directions that are better remembered by people in the event of a crash. Because, and this is creepy, most people don't die in plane crashes. They die as a result of the fugue state that sets in afterward in which they are so panicked they can't move. The easier directions are for what to do in an emergency, the more lives can be saved.
Intuitive design isn't just more convenient, it prevents people from dying in terrible and preventable ways while conducting the activities of their daily lives.
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