In Stockholm, where I live, we have commuter trains from somewhere in Europe (I think in-fact they are from Italy).

The trains have buttons that can be pressed to open the doors. On the inside and outside. These buttons, if one can even call them buttons since they neither have the “push-in” feeling of a button, nor look pretty pushable… in fact I believe my old design teacher at my university would say they have a low affordance for being pushed.

Although, being an avid fan of the TV series Alias, I have another view on these buttons as well…

Now, that looks pretty much exactly like the symbol used by the renaissance genius and inventor Rambaldi from the TV series Alias.

Given that Swedish authorities have failed numerous times to teach us Swedes to push those buttons to open the doors to the trains without them having to open every door (especially advantageous when there’s low traffic in the summers or winters)… perhaps the buttons were never meant to be pushed? Perhaps they are the part of a sinister design to awake Rambaldi, or give some evil mastermind eternal life? Maybe that’s why so many people have a hard time pushing them? They’ve seen Alias and knows what happens to some of Rambaldi’s less fortunate Guinea pigs… ;o)

For those of you who do not know who Rambaldi is, check out wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_Rambaldi