Bad design is easy to notice. Typically it is bad designs that annoy people and frustrate them so much that it is almost impossible to not notice them. Good designs on the other hand are difficult to spot. I have heard this saying before but it hit me right in the face when I was trying to come up with a posting for the blog. I was trying to think of both bad and good designs and struggled immensely with coming up with a good design. I spent the greater part of my random thoughts today trying to see if things I interacted with were good vs. bad designs, and, let me tell you, the bad stuck out far worse than the good.
I was looking through some photos of the last few months and I did manage to come across something that I think is a particularly good design. The photo shows my son on a see-saw. With little cultural knowledge about how people use them (having never seen people on one before), he was able to grasp the simple concept that he was supposed to sit on one end. The seat naturally affords sitting as it is curved for the shape of a person. Thus, one can extend their knowledge of chairs to the seat on the see-saw. The handle bars with grips suggest one should grasp them. Given that the other side of the see-saw looks identical, it is fairly clear that an equal action should be taken on the other side - this is perhaps the best part of the see-saw's design in my opinion. The movement up and down is not entirely intuitive, but can quickly be discovered by anyone who is willing to sit down on the see-saw, even by oneself. Though, in some ways, the mirroring of the see-saws ends could be used to predict this as could the metal bar in the middle with pivot point. My son did not completely foresee this aspect though and it was only when he started moving that it was understood.
- Carman
I was looking through some photos of the last few months and I did manage to come across something that I think is a particularly good design. The photo shows my son on a see-saw. With little cultural knowledge about how people use them (having never seen people on one before), he was able to grasp the simple concept that he was supposed to sit on one end. The seat naturally affords sitting as it is curved for the shape of a person. Thus, one can extend their knowledge of chairs to the seat on the see-saw. The handle bars with grips suggest one should grasp them. Given that the other side of the see-saw looks identical, it is fairly clear that an equal action should be taken on the other side - this is perhaps the best part of the see-saw's design in my opinion. The movement up and down is not entirely intuitive, but can quickly be discovered by anyone who is willing to sit down on the see-saw, even by oneself. Though, in some ways, the mirroring of the see-saws ends could be used to predict this as could the metal bar in the middle with pivot point. My son did not completely foresee this aspect though and it was only when he started moving that it was understood.
- Carman
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