This week we had a very interesting and challenging assignment of evaluating and redesigning a dialog box for a web-based application. A Tiny Critique and Redesign assignment were designed to make me think like a UX designer. While I was working on it, I was recalling and recognizing the reading material from this week. An interesting discovery I had was how human memory doesn’t have a place in the brain and it is wired by complex patterns of neural activity, hence perceptions enter through our sensory systems (Johnson, 2014). The human brain works the way that it can recognize things quickly, but recall, in contrast, is harder because it involves long-term memories with their implications for the interactive design hence memory slips are natural to humans (Norman, 2013).
Moreover, human vision is optimized to seek and use visual structure, hence reading is unnatural to us. Experienced designers ensure that the text is well structured and simplified as well as is designed easy to scan, understand and read. The more structured and organized the information is, the easier and quicker users can scan and comprehend it. However, when a text is buried in repetition or with repetitive list options it makes a text hard to see and miss the important difference between the options. In addition, according to the Gestalt Principle: Proximity is that the relative distance between objects in a design affects our perception of how the objects appeared grouped and organized into subgroups (Johnson, 2014). UX designers should consider these principles and incorporate them in their designs.
References:
Norman, D.A. (2013). The design of everyday things: Revised and expanded edition. New York: Basic Books.
Johnson, J. (2014). Designing with the mind in mind, second edition: Simple guide to understanding user interface design guidelines. Waltham, MA: Morgan Kaufmann.