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The Psychopathology of Everyday Things (Good design (Discoverability…
The Psychopathology of Everyday Things
Good design
Discoverability
Is it possible to figure out what it does, what is possible and how?
Psychological principles for discoverability
Affordance
An affordance is a relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that determine just how the object could possibly be used
Affordances have to be perceivable (discoverable)
Info conveyed by objects on how people can interact with them and what is possible; can be perceivable or invisible
Signifiers
Signalling components of affordances
Communicates how to use the design
Some signifiers are perceived affordances ie. misleading cos action not actually possible
Mapping
relationship between the elements of two sets of things eg. which switch is responsible for which lights; joystick for moving cranes
When the mapping uses spatial correspondence between the layout of the controls and the devices being controlled, it is easy to determine how to use them
Good if natural mappings are used eg. moved control up to move the crane up
Feedback
communicating the results of an action eg. after pushing the elevator button - without feedback, we keep pushing
needs to be immediate, informative, not excessive
Conceptual model
explanation, usually highly simplified, of how something works
mental models; in people's minds and not technical books
clues for mental models come from signifiers, affordances, feedback, constraints and mapping
allows us to predict effects of our actions
Comes from system image which includes manuals, online info and any other info about the object the user finds, including on the device itself
why communication is important in product design
Understanding
What does it (eg. different controls and settings) all mean?
Purpose of design is to not make things confusing!
Need to make things understandable and usable while fulfilling a human need
"Good design requires, among other things, good communication of the purpose, structure, and operation of the device to the people who use it"
Design is about how things work; need to understand people as well as tech (engineers are logical but most users are not that logical eg. need to assume they'll make mistakes)
Human centred design (HCD)
Puts human needs and behaviour first and then design for it "Human-centered design is a design philosophy. It means start- ing with a good understanding of people and the needs that the design is intended to meet"
Experience
Determines how fondly people remember the interaction - was it confusing, frustrating, positive?
Tech Paradox
Makes lives easier but design problem with tech is huge eg. Watch has way more function than just telling the time now