- “What’s something not mentioned in the reading that drives you crazy and how could it be improved?”
Something that drives me crazy is the buttons on my hair straightener. Sometimes, while I am primarily using the heat function, the fan function suddenly turns on by itself. I am not sure whether this is a built in safety feature that turns on when the straightener becomes too hot, but I believe this could be improved by applying Norman’s principle of feedback to the design. The straightener could provide a clearer sign of when the fan is activated, rather than having it turn on unexpectedly and without any clear intention of clicking its button from the user.
After reading chapter 1 of “The Design Of Everyday Things” by Don Norman it has become clear to me that when individuals struggle with the design of a product, the issue often lies in poor communication from the designer’s end. Norman therefore introduced the idea of Human-Centered Design which is the ability for a designer to create certain designs around individuals needs, abilities, and behaviors instead of forcing individuals to adapt their capabilities in order to support confusing technologies.
In order to elucidate his argument, Norman introduced his idea of the fundamental principles of interaction being: discoverability which refers to how easily the user of a technology figures out what they can do. Signifiers are the signals provided to a user in order to broaden their understanding of what to do and where to do it. Affordances which is referenced several times across the chapter and refers to the possible actions that can be done with an object. Mapping refers to the effect of an action or a control that had been designed on an object and how efficient/understandable it is. Feedback should be reciprocated almost immediately and informatively once an action has been taken. And lastly Norman argues that users should be able to develop a clear idea of how systems work through conceptual models.
Being able to understand these key terms and fundamental principles through Norman’s point of view allowed me to reflect on my previous work in interactive media. I noticed that in some of my previous artworks, I failed to clearly communicate what actions and controls the viewer could take, instead assuming they would automatically understand how to interact with the work. In reality, this assumption could have caused viewers to do nothing, as they may have simply stared at the artwork without interacting with or changing its design as I intended. Therefore, this text brought me to understand that Norman’s principles can be applied to interactive media by allowing interactions to be easily discoverable through clear communications and immediate feedback. For example, if sliding the mouse around the canvas changes the color of the background, this should be communicated in a clear and understandable way through signifying.A clear interaction can also help the viewer understand how their actions and control directly affect and alter the artwork. Understanding these principles will also be meaningful when creating the upcoming video game for our midterm project, as clear instructions and intuitive controls are essential for making the game enjoyable and easy to understand.