Design Your Destiny

"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." - Steve Jobs.

What is the commonality between a common act of  IT return filing and an encounter with someone who makes you feel good , long after they have gone ?Considering the first scenario : We have plethora of portals to file IT Returns .Have you noticed working with some portals would be effortless ,smooth and intuitive while some others would make you to frantically search even to proceed with the next step .

The second feel good scenario : I still remember one of my managers during early days of my career who inspired me with his technical expertise ,though provoking questions ,contagious enthusiasm and curiosity. It rekindled my knowledge and helped bringing out the best in me and also in the electronic product which I designed .

The common denominator in the above two cases : the power and  application of right design principles and design thinking, which is essential  not only for building amazing products or services, but also for constructing the right personality which will be the vanguard of progress in shaping  up our destiny

Design Principles

Human-centered design (HCD), is an approach that puts human needs, capabilities, and behavior first, then designs to accommodate those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving which includes the understanding that, as humans we tend to make mistakes.When we interact with a product or a person, we need to figure out it’s discoverability on how to work with that, what it does and how it works. Discoverability results from appropriate application of five fundamental psychological concepts called : Affordances, Signifiers, Constraints, Mappings, and Feedback.Let’s see how to imbibe these traits for a better design

Affordances

The term affordance refers to the relationship between a physical object and a person, any interacting agent, whether animal or human, or even machines and robot.In the tax filing portal product example , the interface it offers to the user ,by enabling direct upload of form-16 so that manual entry is minimized is a profound affordance.

As far as personal traits are concerned ,how do you interact with your contacts, the key stakeholders, how do you bring out the best out of yourself and other people, share the knowledge with them all form part of this characteristics

Signifiers

Affordances determine what actions are possible. Signifiers communicate where the action should take place. We need both. The term signifier refers to any mark or sound, any perceivable indicator that communicates appropriate behavior to a person

Figure 1: Tax Filing Portal

The progress bar indicating where you are in the process and how many more steps are remaining is an important signifier. The below screen shot signifies how many steps are there ,how many are remaining and where you are in that particular step

In certain poorly designed portals in which you don’t have the signifier, you will need your own mechanism to figure out where you are.

Figure 2: Visual Cue

For personal improvement, if learning a new skill is your goal, simple visual cue like the one given aside would help you to monitor the progress and also motivate you not to break the chain. Mark green on the days on which you have met the goal and another colors for those days which you haven’t 

Mapping

Mapping indicates the relationship between the elements of two sets of things. Groupings and proximity help in mapping controls to function. Controls should be close to the item being controlled.

In the portal screen shot in figure 1 above you could see that the Save button is placed in a separate segment, in the close proximity so that you can perform the Save without the need for scrolling farther down.

For realizing personal goal, design the choice architecture in such a way, that the items which are in close proximity to you should be the ones which will help accomplish your goal. Association of positive people with the skills which you wish to acquire, stocking healthy foods and  self-development books in  close proximity  are all constituents of such an architecture

Constraints: Limitations that forces the desired behavior is called a forcing function.

In the tax portal validation checks preventing you to submit your tax returns until all the details are correctly filled, is an example of a  constraint .In my own learning goal ,working towards a self-imposed deadline or preparing for the certification exams or the need to deliver a training has forced the desired behavior in me .

Feedback:  Communicating the results of an action—is a well-known concept from the science of control and information theory. In the tax portal example the notification and  acknowledgement is an example of the feedback .To better our persona ,we need both Feedforward and Feedback loops . Feedforward mechanism helps to identify the  next important attribute to be improved. Measuring our overall well being using  PERMA-V framework is one such mechanism which will help us to progress in our personal trajectory.

Figure 3: PERMA framework for happiness and well being

Summary

Given the mismatch between human competencies and technological and environmental requirements, errors are inevitable. The best designs recognize this mismatch and seek to minimize the opportunities for errors while also mitigating the consequences.

Having the appropriate affordance ,equipped with the signifier and mapping ,constraining forces with feedforward and feedback looks ,engrains the right design attributes ,nudges us in the right direction so that we can discover and design our destiny.