Good Design Is Thorough

Scraps

  1. With thorough in consideration, it's not enough to think really hard how a product is to be used, but to take additional time observing how it is used in real life in order to make corrections. - The DOET
  2. If an error is possible, someone will make it. The designer must assume that all possible errors will occur and design so as to minimize the chance of the error in the first place, or its effects once it gets made. Errors should be easy to detect, they should have minimal consequences, and, if possible, their effects should be reversible. - ditto

A thorough design accounts for

  • how people use things
  • how people may abuse things
  • how people may error on things, the kinds of errors they can make when using things
  • how people may expect the thing to function (people's conceptual model of the thing), kinds of functions they may wish to perform with it
  1. Contextual Inquiry: Inspire Design by Observing and Interviewing Users in Their Context