I often see designs that make various assumptions and expectations to their users, whether it is culture, language, education level, gender, or “common sense”. These assumptions are usually hard to detect, as the testing process is usually deliberate and staged in a controller environment. But when the design is approved and applied to the real world, how well can they actually function?

Some designs can get away from it, since the usage environment might not be life-threatening. But when we are talking about designing for emergency experience, a tiny fraud can result to injury or even death. When an untrained, average person is put into a distressed situation, how well can one remain calm and operate smoothly, as many engineers assumed, to get out of danger?

Emergency door release in train

The picture above is taken from the Canada Line. If you look carefully into the picture, you might notice that there is an emergency door release switch located at the upper-right corner of the slide door. But I think it is very invisible to most people. Here is why:

• The switch box is painted in the same colour as the interior of the train, except the small prints in red which I can positively argue that it fails the 10-foot test: you can neither read nor guess the meaning of the message if you read it from 10 feet away.
• In distressed situation, most people cannot remain calm, stand in front of the sign and spend 10 seconds to read the instruction carefully. The instruction will become a blurry Blah Blah Blah. In fact, as one of my strongest peronsal design belief, “NO BODY READS MANUAL”.
• Oh, and here it’s assumed that all passengers can read English. If you’re a visitor from non-English speaking country coming to Vancouver 2010 winter olympic, sorry to say that if there’s any emergency you are more likely to be trapped in the train.

"In Emergency break cover rotate handle open door" Run-on sentence?

Suggestions:

• Use pictures and icons. And not just an artistic abstract Picasso picture, I’m talking about internationally well-known or standard graphical signage, or if non exists, design a new graphic carefully and test it with real people in unbiased tests.
• Add contrast. Tons of web design / graphic design books has already mentioned it, and it’s really just common design sense. Use high contrast and “alert” colour such as Yellow/Black zebra stripe, or red.
• Make the cover semi-transparent. This way, most people can still see what’s inside the box in normal condition, and unconsciously teach themselves how to use it. I found similar design in fire alarms and first-aid cabinet.