HIT381: Reading Summary 1

As said by Norman in this book that human mind exquisitely tailored to make sense of the world. Give it the slightest clue and off it goes, providing explanation, rationalization and understanding. Poorly designed things can be confusing and frustrating and not easy to use, therefore it is necessary to design it appropriately. Many products tend to fail, because of the lack of discoverability and understanding.

A good design has a good communication from machine to a person indicating what is happening and what actions are possible. Communication is not only important when things go as plan, but also important when the goes wrong.

Therefore, let us have a look at core principles of interaction:

Core principles

· Visibility (SIGNIFIERS)

Any kind of signals like a sign, labels or drawings are signifiers. The writer and me we both have one thing in common with the push and pull doors, without any indication it would be difficult to open the door. Also, public washrooms, need a visible sign whether its for men or women. Signifiers helps us determine about the actions to be taken.

· Affordances

Affordance provides strong clues to the operation of things. For example, when we see a chair, we get an idea that we sit there, doorknobs are to open the door or balls are for throwing or bouncing. So, when a designer, design the user experience they should use the common signals, so the user can pick it up without any signs and do the desired task. Only complex designs need signage or instructions. Even if the user uses it incorrectly, they are able to change their methods and figure out how to use scissors correctly without any manuals.

· Mapping

The relationship between two elements of two set of things is called mapping. As we know while driving a car the steering wheel creates a map with the direction that we are turning in.

· Feedback

communicating the results of an action; is a well-known concept from the science of control and information theory. Feedback must be immediate and informative and on point, because giving too much information sometimes people might lose interest and tend to miss out on important information.

· Conceptual Model

A conceptual model is a highly simplified explanation of how something works. User should mentally know how to operate an object. For example, by looking at a scissor a person knows that the holes in the scissor are to put something in it and the only logical thing that will fit in are fingers.

· Constraints

Every design has its constraints. For example, while using a scissor, we know that the number of fingers that we can put in the holes for the application of scissor are limited.

Reading relation to interaction design

From the reading I can understand the, how important it is ta create a good design. The design should be a human centered design keeping the core principles like visibility, affordance, mapping, conceptual models, and feedbacks in mind. This reading has helped me to understand Human Computer Interaction and the things to keep in mind while designing a process or product for this unit.

References:

Norman, Don. (2013). The Design of Everyday Things (Rev. and expanded ed.). Basic Books.