Design Concept Challenge

Thought this could be a fun one.

Problem: How do you tell which way a door opens

Challenge: Generate a concept of a door handle/s that clearly communicate to the user if they need to push/pull or either.
FarSide.jpg

This has a lot of potential! Nothing is more annoying than accidentally slamming into a glass door in front of people because the handle isn’t intuitive to which way the door opens!

Its amazing how often you find a ‘norman door’ around the place. I’ll try to get something up tomorrow.

I’ll get this party started… quick concept… maybe it flashes when it senses someone is trying to push.


What else can the forums come up with?

How about no handle for the push side. Amiright? :wink:

The last one is cool)

Pull Side:
Hard and sharp edges on the front surface and soft on the rear to promote pulling. Handle shaped like arrow shaped to indicate direction. What if the front was textured to look filthy so that people automatically grab the back surface?

Push Side:
Soft edges all around and nowhere to grip onto. Concaved inwards towards door to indicate pushing direction.

Afterthought: I forgot to add the push/pull text onto it.

It is still ticking away in the back of my mind.

Getting closer … still iterating.


Anybody else have any ideas? Don’t be shy, throw down a doodle…

a little refinement on that last one.

Possibly the best case is a door that opens both ways. With that out of the way I feel like this needs to go further and be more adaptible to different doors/contexts.

My first quick suggestion based on how I hold my hands when pushing/pulling is to define horizontal = push and vertical = pull. That way there is still enough freedom to adapt the concept to the individual door/room/building.

An other, idiot proof, way might be making the push side unpullable (just a flat surface on the door, without an undercut or nook to pull on), and make the pull side unpushable. Maybe a rope, though that seems tacky, but working with a flexible material that communicates that pushing makes no sense might be cool.

sketch it up! Would love to see.

I have been toying with this idea too… I would love to see a shape or surface that itself invites pushing over pulling and vice versa.


A flexible element is a funny idea. It can also be a simple rounded cylinder that sticks out from the door for the pull version, sits horizontal for the pushing version and vertically for sliding doors.
A few days ago I had the idea to create a conic element that can only be pushed yet still looking like a doorhandle. The pull version would then look like the continuation of the conic shape but with the sharp side into the door, signifying that it needs to be pulled, like a cork.

Another way, I wonder how that will work out, is to have a standard doorhandle that when turned, slightly moves forward or backward, giving the person the idea and feeling of where the door needs to go.
I like adding an icon or text too, that always works better.

The first one would work best on glass doors so you’d see through to the other side. I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before already.

The second concept works best if the limp, flaccid pull sausage gets a bit of a breeze and wobbles about, clearly signaling its unpushability.

Edit: I added a fusion of the two concepts, might be fun. The horizontal bar sits flush to the glass, so its unpullable, maybe even make it a half bar only.
Untitled-1.png

I’m really new to all of this but I thought this would be a great way to jump in. Let me know what you think!

Haha I love this description! :laughing:

I like the idea of a flexible pull handle. We could use the tactile feedback and make it squishy in the direction that it is not meant to be used, signalling that it doesn’t work, and solid in the direction that it is meant to be used, signalling that it does work.

Someone commented on my first concept above that they would call it ‘pavlov’s handle’ for the forced affordance. Maybe the handle could drop a positive reward each time it is used the correct way, with no reward when used incorrectly. Will sketch it up.

Guess I wasn’t the only one thinking that no handle on the push side and adding a concave surface would work great! The handle for the pull side could have an inlay arrow (like Yo primary suggested) but with an added feature, putting some perspective on the arrow an some colour gradient to express action.

Pull motion to unlock. Not sure if such a planar surface will work well but i think it looks good…

I didn’t spend a ton of time, but this was fun! A slot/thru-hole is routed through the door, and then the “handle” has the grab portion fed through, and then the push aspect is attached to the door. My thought was things that you push and never pull (A Button, generally speaking), and something you pull and never push (A rope, tug-of-war style).



I’m digging that one AVClub!

Thanks Yo! I’m loving your concepts as well, I especially like the literal nature of some.