Shelves that are hard to open

Image 1

Last week, when I went to IKEA with my family I saw this shelf unit. The appearance and color were really just nice by looking at it, and I almost bought it without checking at its usability; usability means the ease of use of the product. However, it was really fortunate that I did not bought it immediately because I have faced some difficulties while trying to open the doors of the shelves.

Difficulties I faced in opening the doors of the shelves

When I wanted to open the shelf that has been labeled as “1”, I first put my finger into the spaces between the shelves, just like the image on the right. However, the spaces between shelves were too small that my finger could not fit into it. Thus, I had to open from the direction of the blue arrow, which was from the top right (refer to image 1), and the shelf was opened (refer to image 2). 

Then, I tried to open the door of the shelf that has been labeled as “2” (refer to image). Similarly, I opened the door from the direction of blue arrow (refer to image 1), but surprisingly, the shelf could not be opened, but it opened when I opened from the purple arrow (refer to image 1). 

Right after that, I thought that the shelves might be connected because from my past experience only when the shelves that are connected need us to open the shelves from right to left (refer to image 1 for blue arrow) and another that from left to right (refer to image 1 for purple arrow). In fact, as you can see from the images 

below you can clearly see that the shelf “1” and the shelf “2” were not connected. 

According to Reimann (2005), it is important to design a product that corresponds to users’ behaviors, implicit assumptions, and mental models because having a product that designed in a way that similar to how users construct their experience with the products can create more positive user experience. Thus, for shelves that are to open if they are connected then only they should be designed the way to open the shelf like the image below as opening in this way is mostly related to connected shelves. 

Image 2

Suggestion for the design of the shelves' doors  

Based on the statement by Reimann (2005), the suggestion for this shelf is that if the shelves are not connected, the way to open the shelf should be designed similarly, for example if shelf “1” is opened from right to left, the other shelves should also be opened from right to left.. However, this suggestion will only applicable for shelf “1” to “3” and the other three shelves below the drawer of “4” to “6”.

For the drawer of “4” to “6” (refer to image 2), it should have a handle for users to indicate pull as not all drawers are designed to be pulled; some are designed to be opened. Therefore, to easily help users to understand that the drawers are to be pulled, recommended that handles should be designed to use to open drawers. 

Recommendation in designing the "handle"

Other than that, I found that it was very difficult to open the shelf that I have labelled as “5” (refer to the image 2). Because the spaces between the drawers were too small that my finger could not even fit into it, I had to first open the shelf that was around the shelf “5”, such as open the shelf that has been labeled as “2” or has been labeled as “4”. It was so troublesome as I had to take an indirect route to achieve my final goal.

According to Scott and Erin (2006), finger clearance should be taken into account when designing the size of a handle; in this shelf, the handle will be the spaces between the shelves. Hence, recommended that a minimum clearance of the spaces between the shelves should be 1inch or 2.5cm to easily help users to open or pull the shelf, which this design of the shelf has violated the recommended design of handles where the spaces between the shelves were less than 1cm.

References:

Reimann, R. (2005). Personas, Goals and Emotional Design. Retrieved from http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2005/11/personas-goals-and-emotional-design.php

Scott, O., & Erin, T. (2006). Ergonomics and Design : A reference guide. Retrieved from http://www.allsteeloffice.com/synergydocuments/ergonomicsanddesignreferenceguidewhitepaper.pdf