The Design Team
Peugot Cars

Dear Sir,

May I draw your attention to the book "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman. I was reading this book this week and it described how car doors usually have well-designed methods for opening them from the outside but that it is usually much harder to open them from the inside. On the evening of the day that I read this, I found myself in the back of a Peugot 605. The car was being used as a taxi. As we drew in front of my house, I discovered that there were two kids trying escape, having burgled my neighbour's house. I needed to get out of the unfamiliar car quickly in order to chase them but spent a good five seconds trying to find something door-handle-shaped. Those five seconds gave the thieves the head start they needed to escape.

It would be an unreasonable man who blamed Peugot for the losses incurred by the burglary. However, it would be an unreasonable design team who ignored problems like this when designing new models. I understand that there is a trade-off between aesthetics, ease of build and utility. In this case, however, it would appear that the Peugot 605 design failed me.

I look forward to any comments you might have on this matter.

Yours faithfully,

Ashley Frieze.