I took an industrial design course and the instructor told us the first day that if we didn’t learn or remember anything else from his course he wanted us to just retain one thing. That one thing was a sort of mantra of design, “form follows function”.

I remembered! What that means is that function is #1. You design something to perform a particular function and the device, structure, or idea must be able to perform the function it was intended to perform. A door that has no visible doorknob, handle, grab bar, push bar, lever, button, or other easily and immediately identifiable form that any person would intuitively reach for to open the door was designed for some other reason.

At a glance the door would appear to be a door that was not intended to be opened from the outside. The design may have been intended to reduce wind resistance but not for safety. Such doors were not intended to be identifiable or functional in the event of an emergency to be operated by any person with no training or knowledge of such a door. Very poor design with no regard for safety. How was it ever approve by the DOT for sale to the public?

Another example of poor design are electric windows on vehicles. When those vehicles end up in water the battery is quickly compromised and the windows won’t open. Water pressure pushes against the doors making them hard or impossible to open.

Occupants often can’t get out and if they don’t have a glass breaking device they ride the vehicle to the bottom frantically trying to cal 911 on their smart phone. They are found by divers later with their cell phone in hand wit the seatbelt on. The windows were designed for convenience and laziness not for safety.