1-For my principle for designing displays, I chose to talk about the principle of “Making displays legible/audible” in the perception category for display design. Personally, I feel that making a display legible/audible is one of the most important steps in designing a display. This is because, without a legible display there would be no use for the display, without legibility nobody would be able to actually interact with the display and it would be completely pointless. Going off of that, I would describe the principle as the ensurement that people, regardless of eyesight or hearing can use a display with little to no hinderance to the overall task at hand, and be able to use said display continually, with little to no error. A perfect example of this is the display at any ATM machine built after 1999, as they have headphone jacks for persons with visual difficulties to give said person auditory queues that guide them through the process of using the ATM. This, along with the braille on the display allows for most people with visual difficulties to be able to properly use and navigate the display of an ATM with little to no error. I should also mention, that for people whom are not visually impaired, the displays on ATM’s are usually very easy to navigate.
For my principle for designing controls, I chose to talk about the principle of “Make accessible” also in the perception category, but for control design principles. Personally, I would describe the principle as the vital step in making sure that persons with some sort of physical disability or who may just be left handed in our right hand majority world are able to use controls, whether that be a switch in a fuse box, a keyboard, a mouse, etc. the design principle encapsulates the idea that these controls should be easily accesible for anyone who may use them. I have an example for this principle that I just learned existed about a month ago, keyboards. Most, if not all keyboards that are available are made in a specific way, geared towards people who are right handed, with the number pad on the right and all of the keys in the middle/left of the keyboard. While most lefty’s that I know are adapted to using this “regular” style, there is an accessible solution! Left handed keyboards are being made for both gamers and regular keyboard users that allows them to be able to properly use a keyboard in a more comfortable and ergonomically sensible manner. Adding onto this, for persons with limited movement in their arms or those who are amputee’s/missing an arm there exist keyboards that are also combined with mice to allow someone to only use one hand to do tasks. While mainly geared towards people who play video games, it’s very exciting to see where this could lead us.
-2- 1. Describe 1-2 insights/connections/revelations you had from the readings for each of the following topics:
- the gulf of execution and evaluations
The example from Norman about how even “simple” tasks with two variables can be inordinately complex was a powerful one. We tend to think of system interactions as fairly “easy” and benign concepts, but in reality, managing to create an easy to use and understand interaction is incredibly hard. The example of steering a small craft helped really illustrate the gulf of execution and the evaluation for me. I could visualize attempting to steer the boat towards a specific destination and having to do the mentally mapping of how the direction of the rudder would affect my trajectory. It was a great example of the heavy lift on cognition in order to complete the task; heck it makes me tired just to think about it!
- designing displays
It’s definitely a shift in mindset to move from the idea of “inclusive” to “universal.” I think the typical approach is to determine how to give individual with disabilities an accommodation versus starting from the beginning with an idea of adaptability baked in. It’s very clear that “good design” is one that meets the criteria for the latter – creating as system that benefits a significant portion of the user base – whether they have a disability or not. It was fascinating to see the Microsoft study that nearly 60% of users would benefit from accessible technology!
- designing controls
Thinking about designing controls took me back to the week 2 discussions on ergonomics and physical factors and how it feels like a great many the tools we use today are by-products of “tradition” as opposed to good design. And there are probably a number of controls that are used today that are sub-optimal and could benefit not only from universal design considerations but also a resetting of the understanding of the actual goal of the task. Given the amount of technology at our fingertips, it feels like there’s a vast opportunity to re-evaluate and re-engineer a number of current controls in a way that would be better for the majority of the population.
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