A set of short, easily digested learnings from the world of Interaction Design, inspired by "101 Things I Learned in Architecture School", by Matthew Frederick
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Separation of action and reaction
The greater the distance between a user’s action and the system’s reaction, the more you need to emphasise the relationship between the action and the reaction.
@Anonymous, I think they are trying to be a little deeper then that, by suggesting that the level of feedback to an action has to correspond to where or when the reaction occurs. For example, a "please wait" or "working" type staller is appropriate in a web form when the reaction will be somewhat delayed, but not when the delay is ordinary (short).
@paulie right on. I actually had to stop and think for a second because I think that most UX designers have this so ingrained that it's like breathing.
Especially on the web, users tend to treat all non-addressed pauses as a connection error so it's vital that we let them know that something is happening.
The greater the distance between a user’s action and the system’s reaction, the more you need to emphasise the relationship between the action and the reaction.
Odd way of putting it, but yes, feedback is fundamental.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous, I think they are trying to be a little deeper then that, by suggesting that the level of feedback to an action has to correspond to where or when the reaction occurs. For example, a "please wait" or "working" type staller is appropriate in a web form when the reaction will be somewhat delayed, but not when the delay is ordinary (short).
ReplyDelete@paulie right on. I actually had to stop and think for a second because I think that most UX designers have this so ingrained that it's like breathing.
ReplyDeleteEspecially on the web, users tend to treat all non-addressed pauses as a connection error so it's vital that we let them know that something is happening.