One thing that always confuses me is the variety of modes on some household items. When using an iron, I see that spinning the circle increases the steam production, and for people who have no idea which level is needed for which clothes, they write the names of the materials on the same circle respectively. What drives me mad is that washing machines and dryers are NEVER intuitive. What’s the difference between Cupboard Dry and Cupboard Dry+ if they take the same time and operate at the same temperature? What is the difference between Gentle and Hygiene, and why is the time difference there 3 hours? And to actually figure out the difference, you have to find the name of the machine (which will never match its actual name), look it up in some 2008 PDF file on the very last Google page, and it still won’t answer the question. I always use Mixed washing and Cupboard Dry just because it works, and I have no idea how the other regimes work. And as Norman says, it’s not me being stupid, but the design allowing for these mistakes.
“The same technology that simplifies life by providing more functions in each device also complicates life by making the device harder to learn, harder to use”
I think my example perfectly supports this idea, since the bad design of all these items: with no signifiers, no clear affordances, and no clear conceptual model formed either through life experience or through using the item, just creates more confusion and makes the user always choose one method instead of the huge variety of (probably) useful and functional ones.
I think one way to fix it is to provide some sort of manual, even a tiny table on the edge of the machine would help so much to at least understand which method does what and what the difference between them is. Another way is to display something on the small screen that almost every machine has, like all the characteristics and statistics that are unique to each method, or some short warnings/instructions. Another way to solve this problem is to at least make small illustrations near each method that actually depict what the method does. Genuinely, it would help unleash the potential of these machines and help people use them.
Talking about interactive media, I think the principles Norman talks about are really applicable and foundational.
Sometimes great art pieces with very interesting and complex interactions can be overlooked just because people can’t figure out how to interact with them. I believe that it is very important to design the piece in a very intuitive or guiding way, a way that encourages the user to make the interaction that the author created. As Norman says, humans are really predictable, and in this way, some silent guiding design (not notes, not manuals, but the design itself) should trigger the interaction that is meant to be done in order to experience the art.