In this article, Don Norman's principle of interaction design and Jesses James Garrett's' 5 elements of user experience will be discussed.
Following diagram describes and depicts the 5 elements of user experience.
Interestingly even in current scenario's the James Garrett's' 5 element are referred as it is. From the User Experience standpoint, its critical to focus on these elements and ensure that these are addressed thoughtfully.
Here are Don Norman's six principles of interaction design
- Visibility: Users will find it easier to know what to do when the function of something is obvious visually. Functions that are visually hidden (e.g. low-contrast colors, confusing colors, small print, or a cluttered layout) won't be found easily and users will deviate away from these.
- Feedback: As a natural principle, feedback is critically important in any interaction and the same goes with interaction design. When a user performs some action, there shall be feedback from the interface or environment which confirms that the action has taken place. For example, when user enters data on form & tries to save it, then whether the data is saved or not or it has errors preventing the success of data saving action. Another classic example could be the convention for link text on websites to change color once they have been clicked. Confirmation messages or ‘on’ lights that glow when a device is powered up are also examples of feedback.
- Constraints: Limits or restrictions on what a user can do or can't do. By reducing the possibilities available to only what’s relevant to the functionality & users, one can reduce the cognitive load on users and also lessens the risk of overwhelm or confusion for the users.
- Mapping: The visual elements are always related and rather shall be related. The design that shows the relationship between elements /controls and their effects is considered to be an excellent one. With a better design, the elements or controls will indicate or signal to the user what their effects will be. For example, the arrow buttons on a lift door shows whether user will call a lift going up or one going down. The word “stop” on a bus bell button shows what will happen to the bus when it will be pressed.
- Consistency: One of important design principle is to ensure consistency across the entire environment and it shall means the same. A design with consistency uses a set of rules to make things intuitive, predictable, comprehendible and logical for a user. Visual elements with similar operations look and feel similar, and follow similar processes wherever they appear in the whole system. For example, on a web browser, the “forward” button always takes you to the next page if it was browsed. Many times, the conventions like these can be internal, i.e. consistent design within a single interface, or could be more universal. Some consistency conventions are extended across a whole class of systems, such as web browsers and even though it may not be enforced by laws, these shall be followed unless there is strong exception scenario.
- Affordance: This states that the appearance or form of a system gives the user an idea of how to use it. In the physical world, this could be something like the placement of a handle or the look and feel of a touchpad. In the world of web or interface design, it could be the shape, prominence or wording on a call to action button.
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