Consistency and Standards refers to the idea that products our to be consistent with industry standards and with other versions of the the product (on different platforms, for example). Sometimes these two different types of consistency can come in conflict and designers will have to choose whether to prioritize consistency with the industry or...

Attribute listing is a flexible tool used to brainstorm solutions / innovations for a problem or product. The idea is to break down the subject or subjects into their component features, list the attributes of each of those features, and brainstorm by looking at individual or combinations of attributes. Thinking can happen either by...

The use of affinity diagrams in your interpretation sessions aims to help you to develop insights. By organizing and categorizing the evidence you collected, you can uncover the needs, frustrations and values of your informants, guided by actual observations rather than by your prior assumptions. Here are a few tips for using this methodology...

Divergent Thinking is a key part of the creative design process by which we think about all possible ideas. This step requires and builds upon “creativity-relevant skills.” where we ask, “What are the possible dimensions?” The purpose of divergent thinking is to search the solution space for possibilities and includes 2 models (Model 1:...

Visibility of System Status is a basic principle of design centered on the question “Can people tell what the system is doing?” In class, we looked at the example of a washing machine and ways for the user to tell if the cycle was complete. Ultimately, the product added a simple LED light that visually...

In the context of creative idea generation, design fixation is a phenomenon wherein an idea becomes implanted in the mind of the designer, such that he/she struggles to ideate other designs. Often, one tends to become fixated on ideas associated with his/her relevant long-term memories, or ideas informed by recent experiences. During lecture, we saw...

In the context of needfinding, hacks refer to situations where an informant repurposes something designed for one purpose to satisfy a very different need.  For example, using a screen of a phone as a source of light or using a phone book as a foot rest. We saw in class how hard it is...

You can prevent errors by constraining what a person can do with a user interface such that only valid actions are possible.  For example, if you need someone to enter a valid credit card expiration date, you can use a pull down menu that only lists a small number of valid years.  If, instead, you used...

One of the original 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design by Jakob Nielsen, error prevention is probably the most important design principle for everyday interactive systems.  Better than tutorials or awesome error messages, your system should make it very unlikely that the user will ever commit an “error”. Here’s a recent article on Preventing...