The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman is a guide that explores the fundamental design principles through human interactions with everyday things. According to Norman, the two most important characteristics of good design are “discoverability and understanding”. I have always agreed that great designers produce pleasurable experiences, and that complexity of modern day technology is increasing. My parents have a hard time using their remote for their smart television. There are too many unnecessary buttons that do not need to be added on to the remote. My parents tend to have a negative experience when figuring out how to change channels on cable or switch to Netflix.

There are four fundamental principles of interaction identified in the reading: affordance, signifier, mapping, and feedback. Affordance is the relationship between two matters. This could be a relationship between a human being and an object, or a human being and an idea. For example, a Fitbit is a tracker that understands your motions to motivate individuals to reach their fitness goal (Figure 1). It is designed to make the individual more active. This is a positive thing for the users. However, if an individual is just wearing the Fitbit and is just using it as a watch or is not eating right, then the Fitbit does not have affordance. Another example related to affordances in apps or websites is the submit button on Canvas (Figure 2). If it was just in blue text, individuals would not know if it was interactive. It probably would just look like any other text on the website. However, if it was surrounded with a kind of border that made it look more like a button, then individuals would know that it is interactive.

Signifiers make the affordance clear. It signals things. It describes what something can do, or if an action should take place. For example, in an airplane there are multiple exit signs near the exit door and arrows pointing to the door (Figure 3). This signifies where people should exit if an emergency were to occur. This will allow individuals to safely exit the plane. On the Snapchat application, the purple fully filled in arrow represents a Snap with audio, and the blue filled in arrow means a sent Chat message. The red arrow means you have sent a Snap with no audio. Any opened icons indicate that a friend has opened your Snap or Chat. The square icons with the any of the colors mentioned above means that you have received something (Figure 4).

Mapping is another principle of design that Norman talks about. He describes it as a “technical term borrowed from mathematics, meaning the relationship between the elements of two sets of things”. An example of mapping are stove tops. In figure 5 there is no natural mapping between the burners and the controls. The placement of the knob does not visually suggest which burner it will turn on. However, in figure 6, there is clear mapping between the two. With this layout, it is clear that the lower left knob controls the lower left burner.

Another example of mapping is the volume sliders on the iPhone. It is clear that moving it to the up will increase the volume, and moving it to the down will decrease it.

Figure 7

Lastly, feedback is the principle of communication the results of an action. For example, a microwave makes a noise when your food is ready. This can be a negative feedback when your parents are sleeping and you are getting a midnight snack and do not want to wake them up. A digital example of feedback are the reactions on Facebook. This allows the users the ability to express themselves. In the images below, it shows that I “loved” the video that my friend shared. This shows feedback.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the excerpt from Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things”. It really made me understand why some objects please more user while others frustrate them. As an advertising major and my interest in UX (user-experience) design, this will allow me to look at any projects I will have in the future in a new light.