Reduce User Error through Good Design
The difficult truth about interface design – and any product design – is that people aren’t stupid when they get something wrong – it’s almost always our fault. At some level we’ve failed to understand how users absorb information, how their eyes naturally scan the page, or the way they perceive things in context with the content and features in close proximity. Something large and obvious to our trained eye might well be invisible to significant groups of users. A large part of our job as designers is to reduce user errors, as much as possible, through good design.
By good design I don’t mean it’s pretty, although it may well be pretty.
Good design should be aesthetically pleasing in the context of the product and it’s purpose. Good design should fulfil the functional requirements for which the product or object is intended. Good design should attempt to make problems for the intended user disappear, not to create barriers and cognitive difficulties. Good design understands affordances and the way people will interact with the product. All of this applies equally to web interfaces as it does to swivel chairs, fancy sportscars and everyday cross-trainers.
Sometimes we can reduce the possibility of error through separation or proximity. An example of this would be not placing the edit button directly next to the delete button, like you would see in WordPress comment administration.
By providing separation between the edit and delete buttons there would be a significantly reduced chance of users inadvertently hitting the wrong one when they are in a hurry, or simply prevent errors for those users who find it difficult to use a mouse.
Other simple interface design tools include shade, contrast and size to lead the user’s eye and highlight the important areas. And we can utilise affordances – does it look like a button or link? Does it look like a major heading? By creating features and functionality that provides appropriate affordances we’re saving the user from cognitive load and possible confusion.
To be fair, the WordPress comment administration example uses the colour red to make the delete button stand out from the blue links. However, simple proximity is working against that paradigm and I’ve made the mistake myself. It’s not a deal breaker but including extra distance would reduce inadvertant user error, for sure.
There is a lot more to good design than simply applying Gestalt Principles and making things obvious through affordances, but this is an article not a book. Hopefully it’s enough to lead designers toward learning about Human Computer Interaction, User Centred Design, and Experience Design.
I think the best phrase to burn into a designer’s mind at birth should be Bill Buxton’s we don’t design products, we design experiences.
