It was a set of double doors, and the door on the right had the typical flat metal panel associated with pushing doors open. On the left there was a small metal square with an open center.
These doors were in a church that was hosting a concert with groups from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, so very few people going in and out were familiar with this building. Five people went up to these doors and tried to push open the door on the left, which didn't budge, before moving to the right and pushing the right door open. To open the door on the left, you have to curve your hand like you are going to pick up a glass and hook it into the opening of the panel to pull the door open. So why did people in this building for the twenty minutes I was around go 0/5 at the left door?
Maybe it is because both doors have flat metal panels we associate with pushing. In the picture above, you can see a door against the wall through the glass that has a handle instead of the flat-front pulling fixture. I witnessed a few other doors leading to other rooms in the church also had those same handles. These people may have expected the same handle fixture on this door if they were supposed to pull it open. It also could be these people didn't know that the black part on the left door was actually a hole.
Another question I thought about was why did these five people push the door on the left first instead of the door on the right to begin with? The left door has a much larger window build into it - maybe they were using it to see that no one was on the other side before trying to push the left door open first.
The usability of these doors would be improved by replacing the fixture of the left door with a more traditional "pull" fixture like a vertical bar. I do wonder if the existing fixture is more common in other areas, just not in this part of the country and therefore gave these people trouble.
