Bad Design #2: Passenger Car Door Lock
This is the passenger's door lock in my car. It is not intuitive to the first time user. I can't even count the number of times passengers have gotten stuck in my car because of the lock. I always have to unlock the doors from the driver's seat when there is a new person in my car for fear of having to awkwardly wait for them to eventually figure it out. The left picture is the door in the locked position and the right is unlocked. Since my car is rather user unfriendly, I have paid attention to other car's locking mechanisms which mostly unlock after the first time the handle is pulled. All that is needed to open the door are two pulls. My car does not do that. The motion to unlock it is also rather unnatural when you do manage to find the small stub that is the lock. New users shouldn't even try to find it in the dark.
Good summaries. I used to drive a Scion xB (thank God I don't anymore!) and so many people would get stuck in my car. It was confusing as to which direction the button had to be pushed and no one could locate the little plastic tab for the manual unlock/lock mechanism. Not all door locks are bad, but I really haven't come across any that are outstanding/extremely simple.
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