Unpressable Hotel Light Switches
I took these photos of two tabletop lamps in the same hotel room in Phoenix last week. (Don't ask about the Fiesta Bowl, by the way.) First, a quick word about usability design in hotel rooms: make everything obvious. The nature of a hotel room means that all users are novices; their stay is so transitory, there's no time to become an experienced user. So, are these two switches obvious? No; in fact, one must be twisted while the other must be pressed, and neither visually suggests the correct action. And putting two lamps with differently-operating but visually identical switches in the same room is a very bad move! What any hotel chain would be wise to do is opt for large, obvious buttons on every device: if it's a button, make it a big ol' mashable BUTTON. If it's a knob, make it something that would be at home on an old-school stereo. Don't make me spend extra brainpower figuring out a room I'll never stay in again anyway!
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