A good design pattern library acts as a dictionary, allowing one to be more expressive by making abstract concepts concrete. When you can ground concepts you can use them to build something greater than the sum of its parts. You can’t solve an algebra problem without the basic language of arithmetic, in the same way you can’t design a social system without a basic language of interactions that compose it. This wiki collection of social design patterns serves as a companion site for an upcoming O’Reilly book from Christian Crumlish and Erin Malone – and judging by the wiki, it should be a good one.
Aug 7 2009
On Rounded Edges
A rectangle with sharp edges takes indeed a little bit more cognitive visible effort than for example an ellipse of the same size. Our “fovea-eye” is even faster in recording a circle. Edges involve additional neuronal image tools. The process is therefore slowed down.
Aug 3 2009
Memory is More Important Than Actuality →
Don Norman reminds us how humans evaluate and interpret experiences before, during and after they’ve occurred:
Rosy projection: “the tendency for people to anticipate events as more favorable and positive than they describe the experience at the time of its occurrence”;
Dampening: “the tendency for people to minimize the favorability or pleasure of events they are currently experiencing”;
Rosy Retrospection: the tendency for people to remember and recollect events they experience more fondly and positively than they evaluated them to be at the time of their occurrence.”
The insights are directly applicable to design:
Design for memory. Exploit it. What is the most important part of an experience? Psychologists emphasize what they call the primacy and recency effects, with recency being the most important. In other words, what is most important? The ending. What is next most important? The start. So make sure the beginning and the end are wonderful… Accent the positive and it will overwhelm the memory for the negative.
Aug 2 2009
Jon Hicks on Icons for Interaction →
Here you will find a PDF of Jon Hick’s talk on icon design. The presentation reminded me of a great survey (Comparative Test of Public Symbols) and introduced me to a new resource (Iconfinder). Select slides featured below.
Anatomy of a Feature →
If you’ve ever implemented or designed a feature, this account of the process will likely resonate with you. What on the surface looks like a simple tweak easily snowballs into an avalanche of repercussions. My favorite quip comes in the end:
Applying the 80/20 rule means you will get feature requests from the 20.
Aug 1 2009