Perception
In order to design better experiences we need to understand the way we see the world.
Fundamentally design is very visual. We think of design as things that are pleasant to our sight. Before thinking of how to make something visually pleasing we first have to understand how it is that our eyes see and perceive things.
How do we see the environment? When I personally think of perception, I think of it in a way that one of my school teachers explained it to me. Most of us have heard of this cliche experiment where you place a dot on a piece of paper, you show it to a group of people and ask the group on what do they see. Most people that have never heard of this experiment will answer that they see a dot. Then the controller of the experiment will say something along the lines of “Everyone saw the dot, but nobody saw the piece of paper”.
Most importantly when thinking about perception it urges us to think: why do we notice something and why do we leave something out?
Perception is based on many things, things such as: previous experiences, current context, cultural background, etc., However the main thing that regulates our perception is our expectations.
We see what we expect to see.
When thinking about designing for the best possible user experience we have to look at what triggers us to perceive things in a certain way, and that is contrast. Contrast helps us make sense of what we are seeing.
When thinking about contrast most people think of contrast in color, nevertheless contrast can also be found in shape, proximity and proportion. That is key, since our goal is design the best possible experiences. If we want to accomplish this goal we have to take advantage of contrast not only in color but also of contrast in shape, proximity and proportion. Let’s look at a few examples in design.
Gestalt principles
Gestalt is a psychology term it hypothesizes that people tend to organize visual elements into groups when certain principles are applied. The theory was developed by German Psychologists in the 1920’s. There are 5 main principles of Gestalt: Continuity, Similarity, Closure, Proximity and Connectedness. It is also important to note that multiple of these principles can be applied to the same design and if that is the case a lot of the time that makes the design even more interesting to the human eye. I will also be exploring some of these principles in the later chapters of the blog.
Let’s take Similarity as an example. It is one of the easiest principles to wrap your head around, but it is also the most broad of the Gestalt principles.
Similarity basically states that objects that share a similar visual characteristic tend to be perceived as more related rather than items that are not similar to one another.
If we think of Similarity in UX Design we do not need to look far for examples. Almost all web pages and computer programs use Similarity to organize objects in a logical way.
The principle of Similarity helps the users subconsciously make sense of where to look for specific items on a website. It helps the user to filter information more efficiently and find a specific item on a website effortlessly.
Reading & Perception
The longest word in the world has 189 819 letters and takes three and a half hours to spell
For some reading is pleasure, for some it’s work.
Writing is one of the ancient ways of encrypting our thoughts in a timeless way. It is incredibly powerful. I believe that being able to read and write is a great privilege, sadly it is not treated as such by the common modern human.
Although I believe reading is important, our job as UX designers is to present data and text in a simple, yet precise way. It is important that even when the text or data is summarized or shortened it does not lose or radically differentiate from it’s original meaning.
Accessibility
The goal of great user experience is to present text and data in a pleasant yet in an effective way. When thinking of presentation of text in a design it is important to take in to account accessibility. Designing positive experiences must take into account people that have problems reading due to visual impairments.
According to the WHO “Globally the number of people of all ages visually impaired is estimated to be 285 million, of whom 39 million are blind”.
It is also important to note that approximately 8 percent of people have some form of color deficiency, which can make certain design elements poorly visible.
All text should be easy to read no matter of the hierarchy of importance within a segment.
Gestalt principles
When thinking of how can we make text easier to read we can take a look at one of the Gestalt principles. The principle of Proximity can be found anywhere where things are close to one another. The strongest relationship between elements occurs when elements overlap one another, but just placing them in a similar area also creates a sense of relationship. The opposite is also true, if we have two similar or identical elements and we place them far from another they will not have a strong relationship between the separate parts.
It’s important that Proximity is used logically. If it is the viewer will immediately pick up on the organization and structure you want them to perceive.
Memory & Forgetting
Some people think in words, some in pictures, some in both. I believe I fall in to the category of people that think in words. However I can also visualize and think in images and then put them in to verbal structures. It is quite remarkable that human beings can think of a place, close their eyes, imagine it and the neurons that fire in your brain create a scenery of a place you want to imagine. I believe the human brain is the most powerful visualizing tool.
Our memory is divided in to short-term and long-term memory.
Short-term memory
Short term memory allows the human brain to store around 7 pieces of information at once. However this number can be stretched with right practice.
The best chess players in the world on can think around 15–20 moves ahead.
Not only 7 pieces of information is relatively little information, but the chunks of that information are also quite small. In order to make it easier for users to read and memorize text we use something called chunking.
Chunking is a way to group data in groups to improve the amount of information we can memorize. Chunking is most commonly recognized in memorizing phone numbers.
Chunking is also used to organize and create structure in books for example. We write letters that create words. The words we write create sentences, that create paragraphs, that create chapters. Chunking is also widely used in the Musical Note Language.
Long-term memory
Lasting memory differs from short-term memory that lasting memory can last for your entire life. We are also more likely to memorize tragic or traumatizing events since stressful situations release adrenaline and other hormones that prompt a stronger physical response. That is partially why many headlines, social media posts have become so provoking. Provocation causes a stronger physical response therefore we are more likely to click and view the post, which is how these content creators and media companies make profit.
When designing for lasting user experience we have to focus on consistency. Consistent interfaces build a standard for a product. Users won’t have to constantly learn and remember new patterns, but they can use the knowledge they already have. If the selection button in the product is green, all other selection buttons should be green as well, easing the cognitive burden on the user. This also relates to the gestalt principle of Similarity.
Learning & Problem solving
Design is problem solving
Designers are people that have to come up with creative solutions for problems to improve the every day life of people. What is interesting is that good design is not supposed to be noticed. What is supposed to be noticed is poor design. Poor design creates struggles in our lives and gives us a sense of irritation. In my view that is why it is important to design in an elegant, simple yet an efficient way.
A bad designer will make the user solve the problem, a good designer will solve the problem for the user. That is a statement that sounds controversial because we relate it to the “Teach a man to fish” narrative. However proper guidance in a digital environment can be extremely useful, especially for people that still lack digital literacy skills.
If we think of this in terms of improving user experience there are many improvements we can make to solve simple, every day user problems. Here are just a few examples:
Eye-Hand Coordiation, Time Requirements & Errors
When I think of Eye-Hand Coordination in a digital environment it makes me think of an old video game called StarCraft 2. It is a popular video game that requires you to have a high APM. APM stands for Actions Per Minute. That means key and mouse clicks combined per minute.
During peak moments of gameplay, professional players may exceed 800 APM. Which equates to around 13 actions per second. It is important to note that a full game of StarCraft 2 lasts around 20 minutes.
Here’s a video if you would like to see it in action.
Although professionals can develop great Eye-Hand coordination the average user is not expected to have great great controls of the digital environment. That is part of the reason why a great digital experience has to be simple and consistent.
Poor software or hardware can lead to long waiting screens and poor coordination of the digital environment will lead to errors. Everyone encounters an error and everyone knows how frustrating that can be. As designers we must take that in to consideration. From helping the user solve the issues to designing nice error pages.
In terms of examples in UX the best practices when thinking about error screens would be to include short, non-technical descriptions and give a way for the user to resolve the error. There should also not be multiple reasons for errors even if it can be caused by a variety of things, since that often leaves the user even more frustrated and confused.
