The author of the book The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman, starts the chapter by describing how he always has issues with opening doors. He talks about numerous ways doors can be open and how sometimes creators of doors prioritize design over functionality. Norman says that usually, these issues arise when designers fail to present users with proper discoverability. Then, the author introduces Human-Centered Design or HCD for short. He states that it is a solution that finds how people act, what they can do, and then design products that fit those criteria. When reading the provided chapter from Don Norman’s book on design, I realized that I occasionally find myself thinking about similar concepts as the author. Due to my major, I constantly work on software that faces people. I usually try to evaluate whether a feature that I have implemented would make sense to a user. I try my best to design good signifiers if the affordances are complicated so that users don’t think twice about using the features that I design. I found it very helpful to learn about the fundamental principles of interaction.
Examples of four fundamental principles of interaction
Affordance
One example of a bad affordance in a physical world is the door handles of the Tesla Model 3. Model 3 features one-hinged door handles that are flush with the vehicle’s doors. Such design increases the aerodynamics of the vehicle and makes it look more stylish. However, when I first tried to open the door, I was not successful. The door handle is supposed to afford opening the door, but for people like me, who have never had experience with this car, the door handle did not have that affordance right away. I had to learn how to open this door. This is why I think this is an example of a bad design with respect to affordance.
An example of a bad affordance in a digital world is a buy now button on Amazon.com. Even though the button has a signifier that describes what it does, the icon on the button is misleading. The icon is a play button, which makes no sense to me in the context of buying something online. Thus, since the button performs a buy functionality and does not play any media, it is a bad affordance.
Signifier
One physical signifier that comes to my mind is children’s toys that have a speaker. Usually, these toys have a label that tells the user where to press on the toy, so it makes sounds. In my opinion, this is a good signifier. It clearly shows where you need to press on the toy, so it performs its audio features.
A good digital signifier is a scroll down icon present on many websites that present information from top to bottom. That icon can be animated or static but is clear in what it is telling. Another important part is that that icon is not invasive. It is usually small and disappears after you start scrolling the page.
Mapping
A great example of good physical mapping is a scroll wheel on a computer mouse. It is very straightforward and simple. You do not need to explain what it does and why it exists. People usually know how and why it is there because it is intuitive. In my opinion, it is intuitive because it emulates the act of scrolling through a page. Sometimes, engineers working on this product move the mouse wheel to another location on the mouse to give users a choice of where they want it located. That is why it makes it such great mapping.
An example from the digital world would be swiping left and right when looking through photos on the phone. Creators of photos apps came up with the mapping that makes a lot of sense. Just like flipping through pages of photo books left and right, you do the same on the phone, but in this case, you are going through digital images.
Feedback
When I think of feedback, I think of a smoke detector. Smoke detectors make loud alarm sounds when they detect smoke in a room. Although Norman talked about how such feedback can be too loud and annoying, it is necessary in this case. Smoke can occur due to someone cooking dinner, and in this case, the loud alarm might not be necessary, but when smoke is detected due to something that people might not be aware of and might lead to danger, then such an alarm might be life-saving. Today, more advanced smoke detectors even come with a light that adds to the device’s effectiveness.
Lastly, digital feedback would be a phone’s battery icon. The icon has a progress bar that shows how much charge is left, and it can also turn red when the battery charge is at a low level. In many phones, the battery can also turn yellow when a user turns on the battery saving mode. I believe that this is a great example of digital feedback. People of all ages usually know by the battery’s color if they need to charge their device.
