Diving into “The Design of Everyday Things,” particularly the chapter about the everyday challenges we face with seemingly simple objects, was like turning on a light in a room I didn’t realize was dimly lit. It struck me how something as mundane as a door could become a puzzle. Don Norman eloquently sheds light on this, making me nod in agreement and chuckle at the universal struggle against “Norman doors” – those doors we push when we need to pull and vice versa, named humorously after Norman himself for highlighting these design missteps.
In interactive media, users should grasp not only what they can do within an interactive piece but also have some insight into the cause and effect of their interactions. An interactive narrative created in p5.js, for example, should provide clear feedback in response to user inputs, making the narrative’s branching paths understandable and meaningful. Because a lot of the time when we create an “interactive art”, the interactivity is there and looks amazing, but sometimes confusing or unclear to explore.