Is It Going to Stop?

       As I was walking out of my sociology class, I noticed a student getting a drink from the water fountain. When he was finished, he began to head for the door to go down the steps, but the water fountain continued to run. Noticing that the water fountain didn't shut off, the young man came back to the fountain to see if there was something abnormal about the drinking system. When the student arrived back at the water fountain, the water stopped flowing out of the system. Due to the poor design of the fountain, when the side push bars are released, water continues to flow for an extra three seconds.
       This design does not follow a user's mental model. A user would think that as soon as the bars are released, water would no longer flow from the fountain. If the water would stop, this would provide feedback to the user that they have, in fact, released the side push bars completely. When the student used the fountain, the Gulf of Execution was relatively smooth; however, when it came to the Gulf of Evaluation, the student did not know what was happening with the water fountain. On the water fountain there are good signifiers; the gray bars tell the user where to push. The mapping is also done relatively well by placing the gray bars on the sides where a person would normally want to push; this is Human-Centered Design. This water fountain also can be applied to the principle of "knowledge in the head" and "knowledge in the world." People often see others using a water fountain and learn from this; however, if a user never saw someone use a water fountain, he or she would most likely still be able to use it.
       While this water fountain has some positive design features, there are some design features that should be changed. In order to make this water fountain more usable, the gray bar could come the whole way around the water fountain; this way if someone had objects in there hands and still wanted a drink, the user could push the front and water would still flow from the fountain. The water fountain should also stop immediately after the gray bars are released, for this would provide better feedback to the user.