I felt that this week’s reading effectively conveyed a holistic view of what “good design” is from a human-centred perspective. I felt that a lot of the concepts presented are relevant to our daily experiences with our personal devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, smartwatches etc.).
In response to the author’s view that modern devices/machines are too complicated and present too many functions, these devices (for the most part) have incorporated more minimal designs both in their GUIs and their external appearance. Moreover, they have managed to present their complex affordances through simple and accessible conceptual models which can be understood easily by new users. However, I have found that the discoverability and comprehension of these devices’ conceptual models is dependent on how conditioned the user is to the universal modern language of conceptual modelling used across different technologies. As a basic example, someone who has been conditioned to understand these conceptual models would easily comprehend that a button with an arrow would indicate the ability to progress or move something (e.g scroll down a page, move a cursor, change a selection). Regardless of the use case, this affordance is understood through these commonly used signifiers. However, to someone from my parents’ generation, these connections are not made immediately (even if there is prior familiarity with similar interactions) and would take more time to understand.
Given this example, I would like to present interactive design as a language within itself – one that changes depending on time and place. An interesting component of this design is that there is an exponential increase in new “sounds” and “words” in the form of the constant development of technologies. A decade ago, the use of facial recognition and finger print identification technology in personal devices was a completely foreign “word”. Now, it is used dozens of times daily and is seen as an expectation in new devices. I feel that this view accommodates for the author’s informative identification of the different aspects of interactive design while highlighting the importance contextual information within the design process.