Open, says me
I’ve been reading Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things and I must say I am thoroughly enjoying it. It was written a few decades ago so some of the stuff to the reader might seem funny. For example, Norman makes a big deal about computers – because they were relatively new at the time of the book – and VCRs, which were also fairly new. The underlying principles of usability and the cognitive approaches to memory and mappings are still very valid today.
My favorite example thus far has been the example of door handles. When it comes to doors, you can push them open, pull them open, or slide them open, but take away the handle and you have no idea how to open the door. Handles are very indicative of function and as a result should be designed to clearly describe how the door opens, otherwise you slam your face into it, or, in the case of Mr. Norman’s friend, get stuck between two sets of glass doors.
Good design doesn’t need instruction. A door should be easy to use without having to use the words “PUSH”, “PULL”, or “SLIDE”, and handles should be designed obviously. Consider the following examples:
These doors are clearly made to be pushed open.
Without the words PUSH, you'd probably pull these doors.
These handles signify pulling. The PUSH label only makes it confusing. This company chose asthetics over functionality. These labels were probably added after the doors were installed because people were having trouble opening the doors.
This could be the Nielsen/Norman coming out in me, but notice the first set of doors is the least attractive but the most usable? It’s nice to make something look attractive, but if you take away the usability in the process, you’ve only made the product worse. Part of usability is reducing or eliminating the requirement for users to think. Essentially it’s dumbing things down for the lowest common denominator of users. Good designers can create things that are not only very attractive, but also very usable.
Melissa said...
Unless you don’t want dumb people entering your building, in which case make it as confusing as possible ;)
I think there are ways to have both (beauty and usability.) The key is not losing sight of either.
The greatest-designed things are the things in which we never think of the design at all. That makes it intuitive and “right” with the world.
Good post!
Comment posted on 17 December 2009 at 22:59
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