When technical appliances get too complicated in usage, the problem could be that engineers took the lead in the design process rather than people that think of the user – like e.g. designers. A good example is this light swith that I found in the famous “Schürmann-Bau” in Bonn/Germany.

Complicated enough that this switch has two buttons – one for “EIN” (on), the other for “AUS” (off), it contains more strange behaviours. The green LED for example is lit when you enter the dark room – guess which button you will probably press? Only getting involved a bit deeper with the switch you might see that the LED does not want to guide you to the right button that lightens the dark room – no, it is meant to display the technical status of the light: “I am off”.

Even if this sounds like techno-storytelling, one could say that in the end it contains a certain logic in matters of physical aspects. But guess what happens if you once found out how to switch the light on:

It becomes even more complicated. The green light on the right side is still alight and two more red lights on both sides appear. Only an engineer probably knows what this wants to tell us… . A good example for what a good design should care for.

Anyhow – if you want to know why exactly this switch and no other was used – just contact Joachim Schürmann Architekten, the responsible architect for the building.