INFO 608/FALL 2013
Blog 2:DOET
Chukwunweike Onyemenam
Good design
My example of a good design is a TV remote
The TV remote in question is the remote that controls my external monitor which functions as a second laptop screen. A TV remote can be used to a lot of things, but with this remote, this is an easy to use and simple design, which allows the user to master a greater percentage of its functions without consulting a user manual.
Figure 1 - front facing part of the remote
The Norman design principle I would like to point out is the principle of mapping of the functions on this remote. As defined by Norman, “ Mapping is a technical term meaning the relationship between two things, in this case between the controls and their movements and the results in the world”
This tv has great mapping, take for example, the volume and channel controls
Figure 2 - Mapping functions (volume and channel)
By simple intuition, you can discern how both the volume and channel controls, the mapping is simple enough to be understood without having to consult a manual.
For both buttons, its well laid out, there is an up and down component to it, holding down on the up arrow on the volume button with your finger will result in an increase in volume on the TV, holding down on the down arrow will result in a decrease of the volume. This mapping can also be said to be natural because it takes into consideration our natural understanding of universal standards when it comes to moving an item up or down.
We could also take the example of the numbered buttons on the remote to further emphasize the simplicity of the mapping. The buttons with numbers allows a user to define what channel they want to go too based on the number. It is also natural mapping, its easily understood and one would not need to think twice about knowing how to make use of the buttons.
Figure 3 – mapping functions (tv remote numbered buttons)
Another of Norman design principles I would point out is the principle of visibility, as clearly seen in the picture below with the volume and channel buttons.
Norman defines visibility as the mapping between intended actions and actual operations.
Figure 4 – visibility (volume and channel button)
With the channel and volume button, we know and clearly see it’s visible, we can see intended actions, the labels and how it would be tied to the actual operations. Its also important to note the size of the two buttons, because the designers of the remote have deemed it extremely important to give it more space, bigger size, and a different color so that the user does not in any way mistake those two buttons.
It is also deemed extremely important to put both buttons side by side as they are frequently used and it is positioned in the middle of the remote where the users hand can quickly get to it. It safe to say that the designers took into consideration how a user might actually make use of the tv remote and actually tested it just to be sure.
Bad design
My example of a bad design is an electric vacuum cleaner
A vacuum cleaner makes use of an air pump to create a vacuum to subsequently suck up dirt.
Here is a picture of my vacuum cleaner
Figure 1 – vacuum cleaner
I think this simple looking vacuum cleaner has been poorly designed and therefore classified as a bad design in my book for a couple of reasons.
The first reason is the violation of Normans mapping design principle. Norman points in the book, DOET, that mapping points out the relationship between controls and the movements.
My first goal on getting this vacuum cleaner was to find the on/off button so I could make use of it, from the image above there are 3 gray shiny buttons. Upon further inspection, this is what you see.
Figure 2 - mapping (button)
By all indications and just by looking at it, you should be able to push on this button (given the depression in the middle) and that should signify the cleaner starting to do its job and to turn it off, simply push on the button again. When I carried out these actions a few times, nothing happened to the button or the vacuum cleaner.
It turns out that the button is actually a flip switch, so to operate it; it needs to be pressed upwards or downwards on the edges
Figure 3 – flipping the switch
I consider this to be bad mapping because not only have I wasted time and effort but I have missed the concept about how the on/off switch is supposed to operate. The control and its movements gave two different impressions. I felt I was doing something wrong but this occurred due to bad mapping
After having figured out that to operate this cleaner, I need to flip the switch to both ends. The next task was to turn it off, turning it to both edged would bring about different speeds but not off. I soon figured out that the button needed to be in the middle to be off
Figure 4 – how do I turn it off
I found this strange because there was no order to the speeds or rather it could be misinterpreted. So this calls into question, Norman principle of mapping as well as the principle of visibility
In terms of mapping, there should be some logic to this, so the dots shown in the image above should indicate the speed, two dots meaning high, 1 dot meaning low and the middle position being off- so you would have (high , off , low )
But if you are actually in the process of using the vacuum cleaner this image would be inverted, so it would be one dot meaning low, the middle position being off and 2 dot meaning high so you would have (low, off, high)
Both conventions do not follow a natural order, which way was the design intended for the user. This is bad mapping
In terms of visibility, It would not have been difficult to include text saying “low” and “high” in position of where the dots are. I had to look closely to find out how the dots correlated with the speed of the vacuum. The principles of visibility and mapping are violated