Jeffrey Veen

Lest you think this is only a Japanese/Mitsubishi thing, my German car's gas tank door operates exactly the same way. Push to click open. I know you used to have VW Bug, but I think they've modernized since then. These doors are usually operable when the car is unlocked, and locked when the car is also locked.

I know -- maybe it is counter-intuitive. But once you know, you know... My own learned instinct for all cars now is to push on the door to pull it open. When rental cars have a lever inside the driver-side door, I never remember to pull it before getting out to pump the gas. Give me the dimple-less lever-less doors anyday.

BMW / Mercedes...same deal. I actually prefer the elegance of the design, for with fewer knobs and levers there is less chance of something breaking down the road.

I think it has to do with simplicity. It also probably costs less to manufucture this way than with a lever inside the car.

Still, that does not explain the lack of dimple you mentioned. To prevent breaking long fingernails? At least the door should be politicaly correct now. ^_^ (Is it?)

I hadn't considered (and didn't check) the "gas door locked when car doors locked" heuristic. That's an elegant solution to the security issue. It also lets me leave the keys in the car while I'm fueling so my passengers can listen to the radio -- an annoyance I've got with my gas door lock.

But I still maintain the need for an affordance -- some simple visual indicator that I needed to press the door to open it. Having to resort to instructions for operation isn't an edge case, it's a design failure.

On the subject of which side the door is on, I have driven several cars in which the Fuel Gauge itself contains an arrow pointing to the side of the car that the door is on. While I agree that it would be nice if there were a standard for the door, if there's a good reason we can't have that, can we at least get a standard for telling you while INSIDE the car where the door is?

Probably urban myth, but I've been made to understand that car makers place the door on arbitrary sides so that everyone doesn't try to pull up to the same side of the pump at the gas station. Of course that doesn't make a lot of sense, since you can just turn around and go the other way. But hey, its what I've been told. :)

You'll find a pretty extensive discussion on gas door usability at http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives/000044.php

I remember something on Car Talk about how manufacturers placement of gas doors has to do with different notions of which side is safest if having to refill your tank on the highway. In other words, if you have to fill up from a gas can and cars are speeding by at 70 miles/hour, wouldn't you rather be out there on the passenger side of the car? No clue as to the logic of putting the gas door on the driver's side.

Dear Jeff,

I think the design is actually quite elegant, the elimination of cues to execute the opening of the tank door is justified vis'-a-vis' the ability to open the door by way of the door itself; so while it may not be intuitive, the learning curve is quite easy and therefore, in my opinion, the tank device is very usable. Remember, usability engineering is about a product or device being:

Effective
Efficient
Engaging
Error Tolerant
Easy to Learn

Thanks,
Vincent

My Audi has the same elegant solution with the door unlocked and gas cover unlocked. The car, as it was with my Mazda and VW, allowed the radio to be turned on with out a key in the ignition.

Could it be bad design ruins elegant and efficient design? Had a person never had to get trained to use a lever to unlatch the gas door, wouldn't the It-just-works solution be a very nice design? I have found the most trouble in moving to Mac from Windows was getting used to elegant It-just-Works design after years of horrible user interaction design that Windows offers.

HA! I was in the exact situation a couple weeks ago. As there was no manual in the car, I sucked it up and called City Rent a Car from the gas station. A good design should make the user feel smarter.

And I disagree that it's easy to learn. There are no cues inherent in the car itself (have to go to external sources e.g. manual, expert user). There's no path to understanding other than "whoops, I leaned on the panel." (The Indiana Jones affordance)

An elegant design has subtle clues to usage - An "It just works" design would pop the gas door when proximate to a pump.

Being a huge car buff, I had to chime in my thoughts on fuel filler doors and other automotive design oddities.

I believe that the gas filler door is generally located on the opposite side from the driver for some kind of bizarre safety reason. Perhaps some designer/engineer thought people would be more likely to turn their vehicle off and bring their keys with them to the other side, and thus prevent car thieves from quickly hoping in the car? Or perhaps if a driver were at a petrol station they would either see someone filling the tank easier if it is on the other side of the car?

Of course, some fillers are on the driver's side. My Honda for example. But of course, the japanese drive on the left side of the road! In Japan, all Honda's filler doors are on the passenger side, but the engineers don't feel this is significant enough to change over for export models.

I am disappointed with this Mitsu filler concept (and its' brethren). It would only take a dimple to communicate the design! Perhaps this oversite came from how auto designers don't tend to draw filler doors on their concept drawings?

This finally brings me to VW/Porsche. My favourite gas filler of all time was my old 914. It's gas tank was under the hood similar to an old Beetle. The filler cap was under the hood as well. That is the design that I still prefer.

As for why does every maker choose their own path...I would argue that most people tend to drive only one car, or one out of the 2 or 3 a family might own. In other words, once learned, none of these designs are a problem.

I'm curious with all the comments on filler doors if anyone is upset about the recent industry re-standardization of high beam headlight switches? It used to be that you pulled the left stalk to engage the high beams, but now you have to push it. Pulling the stalk merely flashes the high beams. Now that design detail does peeve me off!

Perhaps the fuel filler door *is* on the side of the driver -as the Japanese drive on the left, as in the UK, with the driver's side being the right...