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July 27, 2003
How to spend $37.89 just like that.
Here's how: Start by taking out the trash and putting it in piles near your front door... Then, load those bags into the back seat of your 1997 Toyota RAV4 for a quick run to the dumpster just down the parking lot... About, oh... I'm not good with distances, but it's visible from the front door of my apartment, but walking back and forth 5 times would be really tiring and inconvenient (although, I would say worth $37.89)... And ultimately, I still walked the distance about 5 times.
Next, drive to the dumpster and get out of the drivers seat and leave your car idling. Check the back door behind you and note that it's locked... Reach in to the front door again and press the power lock button, now try the back door. Still locked... and conveniently, so is the front.
Check all other doors in disbelief and walk back to your apartment. Look in the desk drawer where you ALWAYS keep your extra keys/door remotes, etc. and upon failing to find them, call the local 24-hr towing company to come out and break into your car.
When they arrive, pay your money and prepare to marvel at how shockingly easy it is to break in (if you have the right kind of bent wire) to your own vehicle.
Looking back... Thanks to Don Norman, I won't be blaming myself for this unfortunate circumstance. There are two elements of poor design involved here. The first and most surprising to me is that the door stayed locked even though I didn't "hold the handle"... I've had Japanese cars before this (Subaru's mainly) that you could only lock from outside if you were intentional about holding the exterior handle up while you closed the door. It would have prevented this particular lock-out. The other thing that would have helped if there was a more obvious difference between the "lock" and "unlock" functions on the power lock toggle-switch. All that the RAV4 has is a little 'bump' on one end and a 'dimple' on the other end, and even now as I think about it, I'm still not sure which direction locks and which unlocks... Is there some obvious way of thinking about this that I'm missing? Anyways... very much a design/human factors kind of problem.
Ugh, anyways... Thanks, Jim Bucci... Now if I can just figure out where my 'extra' door remote is. Grrr.
Posted by Andrew at July 27, 2003 04:50 PM