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It's not you. Bad doors are everywhere.

Vox · explainer · Watch on YouTube

UX & UI designProduct & industrial design

What it is

Vox's Joe Posner, with help from 99% Invisible, explains why bad doors are everywhere. It covers Don Norman's long-running complaint about doors and the idea that good design should not need instructions.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it as the short, canonical explainer of Norman doors and affordances, linked in design and UX discussions.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “What is a Normal door - 5 min Vox short”

    Short Vox explainer on what a Norman door is.

    WhitneyLand, 2021-10 · Recommendation · in “Magit, the magical Git interface (2017)”

  2. “The Vox vodcast(?) in [1] goes a lot further into the problem, starting from a very similar door.”

    Goes deep on push/pull door design problems and their simple fix.

    crote, 2025-02 · Recommendation · in “The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: design, affordances, don norman, ux, door design

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