A Moogle  🏳️‍🌈 💻 🎮 🎶 🇸🇪

As someone who grew up in the US but expatriated to Sweden in 2013: They're wildly common in US households - emphasis on *house" - but not so much in Sweden, and pretty much for that exact reason (more info in threaded replies)

Standalone dwellings in the USA tend towards knobs as that's what was the de facto interface for such things when they were built. When bulk cost is involved, however, handles tend to make a greater appearance, so they're more likely to be seen in rental properties.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of the properties you find in major metro areas like Gothenburg, Stockholm, or Malmö were designed specifically with bulk rental in mind from the get-go, so they're statistically more likely to have handles on both interior and exterior doors.

If you happen to find yourself in an older area of Sweden - my frame of reference here is Gamla Stan, (lit. "The Old Town") in Stockholm, then you'll most likely also encounter door knobs on interior doors.

Putting on my UI/UX designer hat, the uptake of handles vs. knobs trends temporally with the uptake of accessibility. 50+ years ago, accessibility was less of a concern, and knobs were what was en vogue, so that's what they went with. In modern times, it's handles. Much better.

This is all kind of fascinating tbh. Like, it's such a small thing I never thought about, but it's super interesting! Thanks for telling me all of this!

Happy to help! I've been doing UI programming for the past 3 years at my job, and have picked up a ton of UX knowledge along the way. Speaking of which, did you know that Sweden has regulations on which direction internal doors must swing? I'm happy to talk about that, too! :)

Shouldn't doors always swing towards the walls? I believe that's how it works here