Title: What Was the Purpose of Saloon Doors?
Context: While the modern designer might have come up with the label “user experience”, they certainly didn’t invent the concept.
Synopsis: Ah the Old West. Rampant violence, lawlessness, intemperance, and plenty of good ol’ anarchy. Of course, this didn’t mean that the era was without its thoughtful side. Heck, they might’ve even incorporated a little bit of design thinking from time to time when they weren’t gunfightin’ or carousin’ or the like. Take, for example, the lowly saloon door. You know the ones I’m talking about. The one in every Western movie where the good (or bad — it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference) guy walks through, hand on holster as the raucous behavior inside comes to a screeching halt before someone winds up getting shot (again, either the good or bad guy — honestly who can tell?) These bi-directional, half-doors don’t seem to serve much purpose beyond their cinematic value, but what if our modern sensibilities are missing the point? What if the saloon keepers of the day knew exactly what they were doing when they installed these? All we can do is apply our contemporary designerly logic to try to understand what they were thinking…at least when they weren’t reaching for the sky, varmints!
Best Bit: “Incredibly dumb and obviously specious theories abound on the internet, and with no Saloon Door Authority to set the record straight, all we can do is use our observation skills as designers to deduce their intended function.”
via core77.com
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