TOLERANCE FOR ERROR

Another vital principle that should be considered to get a successful design is safety. The design should minimize the accidents and their consequences. Arrangement of elements is very important in terms of safety. Most used elements should be most accessible, and most dangerous elements such as electric cables should be shielded and hidden. And those dangerous elements should be indicated with proper warnings of hazards. And the design should not consist of distractive features in order not to allow unconscious actions.

The building of The Faculty of Architecture in METU is the most remarkable building in the campus, of course, but it has a design issue, i think. The level differences near the stairs , sometimes, can be really dangerous, especially for careless ones. The long corridors ending with sudden level differences may cause serious accidents, particularly at night when the lights are turned off. The distractive nature of the environment ( the walls covered with many posters and announcements) increases the risk.

A person walking recklessly at the corridor sees the stairs nearby and steps down to meet a stair but fells suddenly.

PERCEPTIBLE INFORMATION

     

Find the toilets if you can

A successful design should provide necessery information clearly and effectively to the user to prevent misunderstandings.  while doing this, designer should consider the target group of the design, and should use different methods of  comunication (pictoral, verbal, tactile) if necessary. furthermore, design should be compatible with devices and techiques used by people with sensory limitations. By this way, the design can reach all. The essential information for the design should be made visible by contrasting the elements bearing the information with the environment. Another way to create an easily perceptible design is making the design describable by giving instructions or directions. Those were some guidelines to create an easily comprehensible, legible design.

 We can trace and find a lot of violaton of this principle. For example, the toilets of the mall in METU seem very problematic in that manner. we, the students of metu, of course know where the toilets are, and how to find them. However, to reach them would be such an adventure for a visitor. The information is insufficient, the stairway is too iclined, even for the people without limitation of walking ( this contradicts with a bunch of principle, i think), and the corridor is somewhat creepy( at least, for me). In my theory, the reason for all those problems is that those toilets are designed as staff restrooms, and the architect simply forgot to make toilets for public usage( i'm not kidding).