[mixedbit]

I love "The Design Of Everyday Things", the book doesn't talk much about computer UI, yet the 7 design principles it introduces allow to make much more informed design decisions, where design is not just the matter of taste and aesthetic, but of achieving well-specified goals. For example, if the user has no way to figure out what a button in the UI does, and needs to click the button to check it, and even then can't figure out what has happened, it is a more prominent design failure than misalignment of the button.

[mattmanser]

One that drives me crazy is copying text from messages. So many apps fall foul of the button problem you describe above.

Even chat apps. In Whatsapp every time I want to copy some message text I have to hunt for where the copy icon is, it appears far away from the message at the top of the screen with 5 other icons, none of which it's clear what they do.

Slack is at least a little better than this, when you highlight a message it offers similar functionality but with a modal where it's easier to find the "copy text" option as it's labelled.

Worse are the apps that try and make it hard to copy text because they want to force you to share via their app to drive engagement.

[andreareina]

Norman doors are still the bane of me.

[LandR]

My local co-op for about the last 10 years had a norman door, and multiple times a week I would pull rather than push or vice-versa. Then finally a couple of weeks ago they've sellotaped a handwritten push / pull on both sides.

So it mustn't have just been me getting it wrong every time!

[Lu2025]

Most doors in public places need to open to the outside for ease of evacuation in case of an emergency.

[oneeyedpigeon]

More doors should take a leaf out of USB-C's book...

[bluGill]

Unfortunately either direction doors are harder to weather seal and energy efficiency matters a lot. Just give me a clear handle that indicates which push/pull and I'll do the right thing every time - this is cheaper as well (but it might not fit with your senses)