Learning Reflections / 2

Week two is wrapping up. The focus this week was on learning about how our brains work and how this can be applied to design decisions. Designing with the Mind in Mind gives straightforward examples of why designers need to consider limitations of how our brains process our environment. I especially liked learning about how the brain processes visual information, particularly the section about peripheral vision. In observing people using websites, I am always amazed at how much information is missed completely. Understanding how peripheral vision limitations plays into this was eye-opening (pun intended?). 

Something that was oddly challenging for me this week was finding examples of negative design / user experience. As a person who has been designing and working with websites for over a decade, you would think I could easily come up with a dozen examples. But I adapt quickly to websites and forgive them their flaws. I might fall into the camp mentioned by Don Norman that blames themselves when things don't work as expected. I see this frequently in the usability research at work; people blame themselves and not the design. 

This week's lesson made me vow to be more critical of designs and actively generate ideas to make things better and easier. I think this is a muscle that could use more exercise in my professional life. At the same time, I've been trying to live by Norman's quote, "Don't criticize unless you have ideas to make it better". Identifying issues is one skill. Coming up with good solutions to those issues is an entirely separate skill.