Alistair D N Edwards

http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~alistair/

POETry In-teraction

POETS

Psychology of Everyday Things

Don Norman

POETS

Design of Everyday Things

Don Norman

DOETS

Don Norman

http://www.jnd.org/NNg-Photographs/NNg-photographs.html

Poetry in motion

Outline

POETSNominationsExamples of everyday design

AffordancesValues

Application of these principles to interface designHomework

Don Norman

http://www.jnd.org/NNg-Photographs/NNg-photographs.html

Action cycle

Affordance

‘Interfaces’ should be intuitive

Good designs afford their use

Affordances are

Ill-defined

Why is the chair the favourite example?

Culturally dependent

Evolutionary

Don Norman on affordance

Good affordance

http://www.dovetailcarpentry.co.uk/images/prime-images/push-bar-door-1.jpg

Bad affordance

http://www.iqcontent.com/blog/files/push%20door%20jpeg%20small.jpg

Good affordance

http://store.tread-ware.com/merchant2/graphics/00000001/1044.jpg

Value in design

Every design embodies the designers’ values

What are they?

Possibly conflicting

Example values

Accessibility

Aesthetics

Ease-of-use

Ecology

Money-making

Safety

Others?

Conflicting values

Don Norman on the Macintosh on-switch

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/designing_future.html

Form follows function?

Louis SullivanJet turbine blades

organic, complex curves

Form follows function?

Louis SullivanOften cited as an example

But actually a counter-example, according to users

What would you do with this object?

http://www.freefoto.com/images/13/49/13_49_59---Cold-Water-Tap_web.jpg

What would you do with this?

…and this?

Would you twist it?

Affordances evolve?

What would you do with this object?

Affordances evolve?

What can’t you do with this object?

Hands-free tap

Hand washer

Hand washer – poor affordance?

How would you close the plug?

How would you close the plug?

Bad design: Jailin Fan

Cold and hot faucets. [taps]

The hot (left) and the cold (right) water faucets are separate.

Now, for the life of me I don't understand the logic behind this (I had the same problem one years ago in London).

In the current configuration, either your hand is really cold or boiling hot - but never in a happy medium (no Intelligent Design here!).

Good design: Jailin Fan

Oral-B Toothbrush

It has got timer. Bring very good experience of brushing teeth to user.

Bathrooms

Hand dryers

What do you know about someone who wants to dry their hands?

Their hands are wet

Hand dryers

Hand dryers

Hand dryers

What would you do with this dryer?

Good design: Judith Borghouts

Macbook

Good design: Judith Borghouts

Alessi kettle

Good design: Pep Lopez Font

Food container bag

Good design: Pep Lopez Font

Food container bag

Good design: Grace Chen

I think the design of the light controler is good. It is simple but easy to understand.

Bad design: light switch

What can you do with this switch?

Lights on

Lights off

How to tell the difference?

Dim the lights

Poor design: Cash dispensers: Martin Rooney + Alistair

Cash dispensers: Martin Rooney

When I go to a cash point, I am 99% of the time just wanting to get some money out. So my mental model is that I expect to find an option simply titled 'cash'. But (as this screenshot shows) there is often never just an option 'cash', its always coupled with some other stuff that I don't care about, that just waste my time and forces me to stop and think. In the screenshot I can choose between:

Cash with on-screen balanceCash with receipt

Why not just cash ?

Cash dispensers: Alistair

Inconsistency

Allows me to enter how much I want before it tells me its empty

Offers me amounts that are multiples of £10 – and then says it’s only got 20s

An unusual document mix may be dispensed

Cash dispensers

etc etc.

Edwards, A. D. N. (1997). How hard can it be to design a hole in the wall? Interfaces (36): p. 3.

http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~alistair/publications/html/holeinthewall.html

Poor design: door lock

Poor design: door lock

I have tried – and so far failed – to build a state diagram of this lock

Poor design: door lock

Locked or open

only apparent by trying the handle

Unlocking may be once-only or ‘permanent’

Depends on programming

and time of day

Flashing green light and beep

meaning…?

Interface designed by an engineer

Braille

Don’t get me startedhttp://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~alistair/braille.html

Edwards, A. D. N. (1998). Making elevators truly accessible to blind people. Elevator World, December, pp. 34-35.

Bad design: Judith Borghouts

Jura Ena espresso machine

‘After years of

using it, I still can’t

remember how to

do certain things.’

Bad design: Pep Lopez Font

Cooker in his house

Bad design: Pep Lopez Font

Cooker in his house

Pratyush Pandab

Students in Langwith Uni accommodation might agree with me. The induction cooker with 4 hot rings arranged in a square panel and their corresponding knobs aligned on one side of the panel. Its always fun to watch my flatmates turn the wrong one and then realize it later and mumble!

Bad design: Grace Chen

I think the oven icon is not very good, I am not really understand what does it mean.

Computer interfaces

Button affordance

Poor design: Pratyush Pandab

buttons in win XP affords clicking (bevel design)... contrast it with windows 8 metro overlay. all are 2 dimensional.

What does this afford?

- Affordances can be culturally-related

What does a padlock icon afford?

http://www.microsoft.com/library/media/1033/protect/images/online/padlock.jpg

Other interface affordances

Evolved?

Scroll bars

Menus

Arrows

etc.

Homework

Choose better labels than A and B

Design graphical alternatives (icons)

To be selected by a vote (user participation)