While reading The Design of Everyday Things, I found the author’s principles of good design agreeable, but I felt that he was a bit biased. He mainly put the blame on the machine and the design, including the engineers and designers, but said little about the user. I think everyone contributes to a product’s efficiency because there are many people who can be oblivious to simple instructions and fail to utilize the product properly. However, some of his examples were exaggerated. For instance, he made the door example seem like a bigger problem than it actually is. On top of that, he kept repeating many of the same points, which felt distracting to me.
One of the design failures that drives me crazy is oversimplification. The author touched on it, but I want to dive deeper into it. I think minimalism is one of the reasons for this. It has become a new aesthetic to avoid having many labels and other visual elements, which can lead to little to no signifiers. You can barely find symbols on some devices, let alone clear instructions. Because of this, I think simple designs do not necessarily equal effective designs. We need to move away from prioritizing the minimalist aesthetic and instead include understandable signifiers. It may not result in the simplest-looking design, but it would make the design more understandable.
I think the principles mentioned in the reading are incorporated directly into interactive media because having good design means creating a better interactive experience, as long as those principles are applied correctly. Feedback, for example, directly relates to interactivity because it makes the system seem like it is responding to the user’s input. It can be applied through audio, or through a visual change, which enhances the overall experience and satisfaction. But to me, discoverability is the most important one because if this principle is not applied correctly, then everything that comes after loses importance. If you never understand how the device is supposed to work, then why would you give attention to the other principles? This is especially important in interactive design, where mutual understanding is an important factor to consider.