“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.”

Don Norman discussed a range of headlining topics in “Design of Everday Things”, from the way that we interact on a daily basis with multiple types of design principles, to explaining the foundational principles of interactive design.  The ability to understand the four principles he discusses will help every user, reader, robot, or being see better or worse designed throughout their days.  Affordance, Signifiers, Mapping, and Feedback are ever present in our mass consumed world.  Before reading this excerpt, I never knew or fathomed how much they played in my daily life.  From the doors in buildings, my trusty swiss army knife,  elevator buttons, and even the oven in my house.

 

AFFORDANCE

When starting to think about the relationship we have between our surroundings and how much they play into our daily lives, Affordance is the first topic that is thought about and covered in the Fundamentals Principles of Interaction.  While affordance actually means to the relationship between physical objects and any interacting agent.  Something that affords the user the ease of maneuverability, access, or simple interaction.

As an avid outdoorsman, the object that comes to mind when I think of Affordance, would be the iconic Swiss Army Knife.

With its ease of use, and functionality that can be used in almost any situation.  With all of the utensils it contains, such as a file to use for starting a fire, scissors for cutting, cork for opening a bottle, the limits are endless.  With so many uses, it is one of the most useful products on the market.

A good example of Affordance on a technological aspect is the volume slider on your computer.  It simple, and easy to read and understand.  Explaining what it is doing while you are operating it.

Both of these serve as good examples of how affordance is available in our daily life.

 

SIGNIFIERS

After affordances, Signifiers are so of the most common interactions we have on a daily basis.  From the pull tabs on envelopes to doors at resutraunts.  These are instructions on how to properly use these objects on a daily basis.  The Pull signs on doors and the wheelchair push buttons are the most primitive example of signifiers that assist us in our daily lives.

When it comes to technology, signifiers are everywhere.  From power buttons, volume buttons, submit buttons, or anything else that tells us what the next thing that will happen is.  Most buttons on websites are all considered to be signifiers.  On your phone, all of the buttons on your phone are considered to be signifiers.  Since they are signifying what they are and what will open once you select them.

 

 

MAPPING

The next interaction fundamental is Mapping.  According to Norman, Mapping is the relationship between two things and their actions follows the principles of mood mapping and enhanced as much as possible through a spacial layout and temporal contiguity.

Good mapping can be described in many different ways, from video game controllers, scroll bars, or the buttons on an elevator.  These devices are designed with ease of understanding for all users to understand what they are displaying to the user.  Everything is laid out, placed, and keeps you informed of where you are on the screen or between floors.

 

Examples of bad mapping are Ceiling fans with lights, parking lot signs, stove top ovens that are organized in a box method with the controls in a straight line, or doors that show you a push sign, but have door handles to pull.

Scroll bars are a great explanation of mapping in technology.  The ability to be able to place yourself on a screen and understand where you are is key to anything being done on a computer.

 

FEEDBACK

The fourth and final interaction principle to go over is, Feedback.  The way that an object reacts to the users input.  These designs can be as simple as when you push a button a lid opens on a water bottle, a screw reacts to the users input, or most commonly a key is pressed on a key board and the letter appears on the screen.

 

 

The selecting of a button on a webpage is a great example of feedback.  When you select the button and a page opens is what happens and what is expected.