Something that fascinates me in design, particularly way-finding and signage, is the struggle between something that is working as it should and something that isn't. The biggest observation is how to communicate that something isn't working, or is broken, and finding how a user will interact with that object if it is. No-one expects things to work all the time, then why are these eventualities not designed into objects to provide a simple, elegant solution to informing users and service providers that it is not working as it should.

You can encounter it many times at airports, in toilets, any type of door, in fact any type of object that people interact with. How do you know when a door is locked and are you are scared to try opening a closed door to find that it is locked, particularly worrying when you aren't sure if someone is in there. What is your level of trust of these objects?

If it's broken will you still be able to cross the road. Would you push a button if the button looked broken, does it make the object and the concept it is delivering any less valuable or trustworthy.