| Sumario: | BACKGROUND: Doors are among the most commonly used everyday objects. Like all objects, doors have multiple affordances. While it is up to the user to choose from among the available affordances of a given designed object, it is up to the designer to allow the user to do so easily and safely. Doors with ambiguous affordances may hinder safe egress, especially under emergency conditions. AIM: This study investigated how doors with ambiguous affordances influence egress behavior. METHODS: We recorded and coded 328 egress attempts at three sets of exit doors on a university campus. We expected that the design and layout of two of the three sets of doors would create ambiguities about where to push on a horizontal push bar to open the door. Moreover, we expected that doors with ambiguous affordances would hinder egress relative to those with unambiguous affordances by generating more (initially) unsuccessful egress attempts and leading to longer egress times. RESULTS: Analyses of video coding of egress behaviors supported these hypotheses. Approximately 10-15% of egress attempts on the ambiguous doors were (initially) unsuccessful, but there were no unsuccessful egress attempts on the unambiguous doors. Moreover, unsuccessful egress attempts were nearly 1s longer than successful attempts. INTERPRETATION: This study provides the first empirical evidence that doors with ambiguous affordances hinder safe egress. A well-designed door, like any well-designed object, is one for which affordances can be perceived unambiguously, highlighting the need to design with affordances in mind. Design implications of the findings are also discussed.
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