Design of everyday things

Characteristics of good design

Discoverability

Understanding

what actions are possible

Where and how to perform them

How a product supposed to be used

what do different controls and settings mean

All artificial things are designed

Not all designed things involve physical structure

Various forms of design

Industrial design

Interaction design

Experience design

creating and developing concepts to optimize the function, value and appearance of products.

enhance people's understanding of what can be done, what is happening and what just occurred.

designing products with a focus on quality and enjoyment

When designed badly

force us to behave the way the product wishes rather than as we wish

unusable leading to frustration

Machines are designed by people and by human standards they are pretty limited

follow simple and rigid rules of behavior

Machines require us to be precise and accurate

They have no leeway or common sense

The rules followed by a machine are known only by the machine and its designers

reasons for deficiencies for human-machine interaction

1) limitations of today's technology

2) self-imposed restrictions by the designers

3) complete lack of understanding of the designs principles necessary for effective human-machine interaction

Human-centered desgin

an approach that puts human's needs, capabilities, and behaviors first

understanding humans' needs comes from observations

Good design has the understanding of psychology and technology

good design has good communication especially from machine to person

communication is especially important when things go wrong

Principals of interaction

Affordances

Signifiers

The relationship between a physical object and a person. relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of an agent.

Constraints

Mappings

feedback

Affordances determine what actions are possible. Signifiers communicate where the action should take place.

The relationship between the elements of two sets of things. Natural mapping leads to immediate understanding.

Some way of letting users know that the system is working. Communicating the results of an action.