We’ve all heard these “laws” of design: “People don’t read on the web.” “If you have to explain how to use your product, you’ve failed.” “A picture is worth a thousand words.” It seems like our job as designers is to make things as intuitive as possible, using as few words as possible so that the meaning is self-evident through our visual design. But does this always produce the best user experience? Is showing always better than telling? We’ll look at several examples of design from the real world, the web, and apps that use showing, telling, or both as a method for producing the best UX. Rather than just assuming one is always better than the other, learn how to choose the right approach for your particular design problem and users.
9. “ When affordances are taken
advantage of, the user knows
what to do just by looking:
no picture, label, or instruction
needed.
Don Norman
The Design of Everyday Things, 1988
14. “
Forget affordances:
what people need,
and what design must provide,
are signifiers.
Don Norman
http://jnd.org/dn.mss/signifiers_not_affordances.html
15. “
Patterns provide us with
wonderful shortcuts to easily
communicate affordances.
Natasha Postolovski
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/06/affordance-most-underrated-word-in-web-design/
35. “ You don’t want to put too much meaning into
[the icon]. Because the pregnancy test has a
very different significance to different people.
For some people, it’s good news. For others,
it’s bad news. You can’t put too much of your
own sensibility into the object.
Marcel Wanders, designer of a pregnancy test in 1990
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/magazine/who-made-that-home-pregnancy-test.html
52. “ Icons contribute to the visual attractiveness of
an interface and, under the appropriate
circumstances, can contribute to clarity;
however, the failings of icons have become
clearer with time. … Instead of icons
explaining, we have found that icons often
require explanation.
Jef Raskin, “Father of the Macintosh” and cognitive psychologist
The Humane Interface, 2000
54. “
A word is worth a thousand
pictures.
Bruce Tognazzini
Apple Human Interface Group motto, 1985
55. “ Don’t underestimate the power of
humdrum. We have centuries of
practice at making print and text
engaging, and old interface
conventions are not necessarily old-
fashioned.
Josh Clark
Buttons Are a Hack: The New Rules of Designing for Touch, Webstock 2011