Product Design Flashcards
Norman’s 3 Levels of Processing
Visceral, behavioral, and reflective
Discoverability
A characteristic of good design, discoverability allows users to intuit what actions are possible, where to perform them, and how.
Affordance
Affordances (n) refer to perceivable attributes that “suggest” possible actions to end users. The concept is dependent not only on the physical capabilities of the user, but also on their goals, beliefs, and past experiences.
Affordance (adj) can be used to describe an object with such attributes. Afford (v) is synonymous with “suggest” or “imply.”
Signifier
Signifiers are similar to affordances, but communicate where or how something should be used, rather than simply suggesting what actions are possible.
Mapping
Mapping describes the relationship between user input (control/cause) and its effects. Good examples of mapping are highly intuitive, like curser movement when controlled by a mouse.
Conceptual Model
Conceptual, or mental models, allow users to imagine how a system works, and thus predict the effects/outcomes of their inputs/actions. In most cases, models are derived from affordances, signifiers, and past experiences.
Natural Mapping
Natural mapping takes advantage of existing physical analogies and cultural standards to expedite user understanding.
Constraints
Physical, logical, semantic, and cultural constraints guide actions and ease interpretation. Like inverse affordances, they suggest limitations to perceived possibilities/actions.
System Image
A system image is a mental representation of the use of an object or device that is provided by the object itself (as well as any accompanying materials), but formed by the end user through interaction and observation.
Feedback
Feedback responds to user input by confirming the input, communicating system status, and/or specifying the resulting outcome.
Capture Error
An error where a less frequently occurring behavior is executed improperly because a more familiar behavior dominates, thus causing the mistake to occur.
Description Error
A description error occurs when a person performs the correct action on the wrong object.
Associative Activation Error
An error that occurs internally when a related thought or similar idea interferes with the current action when it isn’t semantically appropriate.
Loss of Activation Error
An error that occurs when, after beginning a goal-directed behavior, the reason for starting it is forgotten. A failure of working memory.
Mode Error
An error where a user performs an action appropriate to a specific mode or situation in a different, incorrect situation—or—when a user perceives the system state incorrectly.
