The Don
About the author: from his own website he says: “I have lived multiple lives: University professor, Industry executive, consultant, keynote speaker, and author. I have been an electrical engineer, a psychology, cognitive scientist, computer scientist, and designer.”
He is responsible for introducing the term “user-centered design” in his book User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-computer Interaction, 1986. In his revised edition of this book: The design of everyday things he uses the term “human-centered design” instead, stating that: “The total experience of a product covers much more than its usability: aesthetics, pleasure, and fun play critically important roles… Emotion is so important…”
He trained in Electrical Engineering, got a PhD in Psychology graduating from the Mathematical Psychology group. He has a phenomenal list of academic achievements and awards that he has acquired throughout his life. Around 1979 he founds the Institute for Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego, among other things! Around 1993 he leaves to work for Apple, becoming VP. He goes on the be an exec at HP. In 1998 founds the Nielsen Norman Group with Jakob Nielsen. In 2014 he goes back to UCSD to become director of The Design Lab, but is now emeritus, as he is for NNG. He has written so many books. What a clever man.
Wow. What a book. I won’t lie, it took me a while to read, and then a while longer to write my notes… I love the way Don thinks - his creativity and scientific knowledge. His obsessions with doors (affordances for pushing and pulling) – stickers for the direction to turn the key in a lock - they’re the easy bits to grasp.
Key takeaways for me (I’m going to keep adding to this!):
The fundamental principles of Interaction Design:
Discoverability: can you figure out what actions you need to take as a user, how to perform them, and understand what it all means?
Affordances. Signifiers. Constraints. Mappings. Feedback
Understandability: How is the item meant to be used and what do all the controls and settings mean?
What Affordances (perceivable clues) are provided by the relationship between the physical object to guide the person using it on how they should interact with it. And then what signifiers are provided on where these actions should take place.
How people do things
Gulf of execution
How do I work this? What can I do?
We bridge the Gulf of Execution through Signifiers, Constraints, Mappings and Conceptual Models
Gulf of evaluation
Is this what I wanted. What happened?
We bridge the Gulf of Evaluation using Feedback and Conceptual Models
People often blame themselves when experiencing difficulties or give up if it looks too complicated
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7 stages of an Action
FORM A GOAL
PLAN (the action)
SPECIFY (an action sequence)
PERFORM (the action sequence)
PERCEIVE (the outcome in the state of [their] world)
INTERPRET (“ ”)
COMPARE (the outcome with the goal)
Not all activity is conscious
Not all behaviour is in squence
Some may last days or hours
Goals can be discarded
The trick is to develop observational skills to detect the 7 stages
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Reach for the high level goal
“People don’t want to buy a ¼” drill. They want a ¼” hole”. Theodore Levitt
But if you look at the root cause, what they actually want to do is put a picture up/shelf up etc
If you read a cook book is your ultimate goal really to satisfy your hunger? (I question this one slightly as I read cookbooks in bed to send me to sleep sometimes (maybe my higher goal here is sleep??!!!)
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We tend to believe all human thought is conscious but it’s not
We’re only aware of a reflective level of conscious processing, once we have over-learned a skill it becomes subconscious
There are 2 different minds: Conscious and sub-conscious
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We tend to believe that thought can be separated from emotions but it can’t be
Cognition makes sense of the world. Emotion adds value
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Emotions interact with cognition biochemically (hormones)
Negative state: Tense, threatening situations: muscles prep for action = good for getting things done (but too negative creates tunnel vision)
Positive state: Calm, relaxed: bias towards exploration and creativity – notice changes in the environment more = good for creative thought (but too positive creates a scatter brain)
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Human cognition and emotion
There are 3 levels of human processing, integrating our cognition and emotion. There are 7 stages of an action as noted above. Design must take place at all levels.
S1 Form a goal: What do I want to accomplish?
Reflective processing
Conscious.
S2 Plan (an action). Are there alternatives?
S7 Compare (the outcome with goal). Is this OK?
Cognitive, deep & slow, often after the event. Highest level of emotions. Causes are assigned. Predictions of the future. Memories made.
Behavioural processing
Sub-conscious.
S3 Specify (an action sequence). What can I do?
S6 Interpret (the perception). What does it mean?
Learned skills that are triggered by situation that matches patterns. Design should consider that every action is associated with expectation – of learned states. We feel in control when have a good understanding; anger when don’t.
Visceral processing
Sub-conscious.
S4 Perform (the action sequence). How can I do that?
S5 Perceive (the state of the world). What happened?
Fast subconscious responses. Need immediate response. Design should consider appearance, style, sound, touch, smell, attraction/repulsion.
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But humans can reach a ‘state of flow’ – if the task is difficult enough to be challenging but not so difficult as to create frustration/anxiety, we can loose track of time and our outside environment (implications with software design).
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People are innate storytellers
We have a tendency to look for causes of events and form explanations and stories.
We tend to blame the wrong things when using everyday objects:
We blame ourselves when things go wrong leading to a repeat of that action with more force, or we stop trying to use it altogether
But our more normal attributes are that:
When we act in a strange, bizarre or wrong/inappropriate way we blame our environment
When we see someone else doing that we blame their personality
But when things go right we credit ourselves
And onlookers credit the environment
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Advice to designers
Don’t blame people when they fail to use products ‘properly. Avoid the term ‘human error’.
Take peoples difficulties as signifiers of where a product can be improved
Eliminate all error messages. Provide help & guidance messages
Make it possible to correct problems. Don’t make people start over, allow them to continue a task
Assume what people have done is half correct – provide guidance to allow them to correct & progress
Think positively about peoples interaction with a product
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7 fundamental principles of design
1 Discoverability
What actions are possible and what is the current state of the device?
2 Feedback
Give full and continuous information about results of actions and current state of product/service. After action is executed ensure it easy to determine new state.
3 Conceptual Model
Ensure the design matches mental model of system/product = understanding = control. A good conceptual model enhances discoverability and positive evaluation of results.
4 Affordances
These exist to make the desired actions possible
5 Signifiers
Successful signifiers ensures that discoverability and feedback is well communicated and intelligible
6 Mappings
Relationship between controls and their actions. Should be enhanced through spatial layout and a logical sequence
7 Constraints
Physical, logical, semantic (language) & cultural. Eases interpretation.