The Design of Everyday Things

Designers need to focus their attention on the cases where things go wrong, not just on when things work as planned. Actually, this is where the most satisfaction can arise: when something goes wrong but the machine highlights the problems, then the person understands the issue, takes the proper actions, and the problem is solved.

Feedback—communicating the results of an action—is a well-known concept from the science of control and information theory.

But as soon as there is a problem or a misunderstanding, the problems arise.

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

“You are designing for people the way you would like them to be, not for the way they really are.”

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.

Two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding. Discoverability: Is it possible to even figure out what actions are possible and where and how to perform them? Understanding: What does it all mean? How is the product supposed to be used? What do all the different controls and settings mean?

The signifier is an important communication device to the recipient, whether or not communication was intended.

Two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding. Discoverability: Is it possible to even figure out what actions are possible and where and how to perform them? Understanding: What does it all mean? How is the product supposed to be used? What do all the different controls and settings mean?