FOR one 83-year-old grandmother, the most confusing part of an Apple Store wasn't an iPad or iPhone - it was the front door.

Evelyn Paswall, a former Manhattan fur-company vice president, is claiming the tech company's signature glass architecture is a menace to little old ladies after she failed to see the glass door at a Long Island location and smashed her face.



Now the Queens resident is suing Apple for $US1 million ($0.95 million), saying the company was negligent.



"Apple wants to be cool and modern and have the type of architecture that would appeal to the tech crowd," said her attorney, Derek T Smith. "But on the other hand, they have to appreciate the danger that this high-tech modern architecture poses to some people."



The slick design of Apple's retail stores has been credited with helping make the California company the top technology brand, but Ms Paswall became a critic in December last year, after going to the Manhasset store in New York to return an iPhone.



Approaching the store, Paswall didn't realise she was heading straight for a wall of glass.



She smashed her face against it and broke her nose, she claims in her suit filed in the US Eastern District federal court.



In her suit, she argues that Apple should have put marks on the glass that older people could spot.



"The defendant was negligent ... in allowing a clear, see-through glass wall and/or door to exist without proper warning," her suit said.



Ms Paswall declined to comment to the New York Post. Apple officials and workers at the Manhasset store also declined to comment.



Small white warning strips could be seen on the glass at the store Friday. It was not clear if they were in place when Ms Paswall's accident occurred.



Even if they were, Smith argues that Apple's precautions were not enough.



"There were no markings on the glass or they were inadequate," he said. "My client is an octogenarian. She sees well, but she did not see any glass."



"The stereotypical Apple customer is a Gen-Y person or a teenager or a college student, but they have to realize that the elderly generation are their customers, too," he added.

Read more about the glassed granny at The New York Post