One thing that drives me absolutely insane is paper straws. Nothing disappoints me more than getting my coffee or any other drink really and seeing a paper straw. And no, of course I’m not against saving the environment or the turtles, but those flimsy things are horrible for mixing drinks and get all soggy so fast. Any milkshake or even whipped cream and t
he straw will give up and disintegrate before my eyes, refusing to let me finish my drink without crumpling up into a useless, unpleasant, undrinkable, thing in my cup. Sometimes I even have to get my hands dirty while trying to get a firmer grip on the straw just to mix it. With sustainability being a key issue for many, there are many other biodegradable alternatives up and coming on the market like wood straws or even sugarcane straws that have much better, 24 hour durability compared to like 30 seconds with a paper straw. While places in the UAE are slowly starting to implement these, it will take time before I never have to see a paper straw again.
This highlights why, as Norman explains, human-centered design is so important. While paper straws match the societal push for sustainability and look great for companies, they don’t account for the humans actually using them that suffer through the sogginess and disintegration of paper straws themselves. One of the other things Norman talks about is signifiers and affordances. Since perceived affordance can take the form of many things, it is important to have signifiers to make clear what the instructions are. I think this is especially important in interactive media because we often assume people will know to click, move their mouse around, press the arrow keys, etc in order to make something happen on the screen. However, as a designer, things that seem self-intuitive to us may not always be self-intuitive to others and can have many affordances. Therefore, having signifiers is important to make sure our projects are understandable and usable to a broader audience.