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Opening the file drawer
Recently, we got new
file cabinets in our offices.
The new file cabinets fit under
our tables and are on
wheels. During the
first week that I used
my file cabinet, when I tried to open the top file
drawer, I found myself pulling the handle
on the top (See arrow.) Guess what happened?
As shown in the photo on the left,
the handle
on the top doesn't
open the top file drawer.
Instead, it pulls the whole file
cabinet out from under the table,
which I accidently did quite often
during that first week! When I visited other
people's offices, I noticed that they were having
the same problem.
The problem is that the handle to move the cabinet is very close to the top drawer and it is more obvious than the actual handle (See arrow) for the top drawer. Thus, it is easy to mistake the top handle as the handle for the top drawer. One is much more likely to want to open the file drawer than to move the cabinet, so the handle to move the cabinet should be less obvious.
Design Suggestion
After about a week or two, I didn't make
the mistake of trying to use the handle on the
top to open the drawer. But if the handle on
the top was not so obvious, I would never
have had the problem in the first place. For
example, if the handle on top had been recessed
like the drawer handles as shown on the photo
on the left, it wouldn't be as
likely to be used accidently.
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Copyright © Michael J. Darnell 1996-2010. All rights reserved.
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