One thing from Don Norman’s “The Psychopathology of Everyday Things” that made me think about my own experiences is his discussion of discoverability. He said the two main things is understanding and discoverability. I realized that I often get frustrated in malls because I cannot easily figure out where I am or where I need to go. Many malls have maps, but they are not always in places where I can easily find them, and sometimes I still have to spend time looking around to understand which direction I should walk. This made me question what makes something technically available but still difficult to use. If a map exists but I cannot find it or understand it quickly, is it really doing its job as a design or not? Norman’s idea of signifiers also changed how I think about this problem. A better mall map could use clear signs, icons, and arrows to show me where I am and where I should go. An interactive mall map could make this even easier by allowing me to search for a specific store and showing me a route from my current location. This would also have feedback within it.
What stood out to me most is that Norman argues that good design should make things understandable rather than forcing people to figure them out through trial and error. Norman mentions how everything is interactive; it’s just the degree to which it is. For example, he uses books and movies and calls them interactive. Before reading this, I usually thought that getting lost in a mall was just my own problem or lack of attention. It makes me think differently about interactive media because I realize that even simple things like buttons, maps, and directions need to communicate clearly with the user. Overall, these principles can make interactive media more intuitive, easier to use, and less frustrating. There are signifiers that give users clues about how to use something. I did not really include these in my project last week. For example, I made bubbles appear when the user clicks the mouse, and the bubbles can be removed by clicking again. However, the user would not know that these interactions are possible because I did not provide any signifiers to guide them.