W2D3: What makes a good design?

Step 1: Examples

• In teams, think about examples of:
  • a recent time when you used an interface and it was a good experience
  • a recent time when you used an interface and it was a bad experience
• For each, write down a bulleted list of what made it good or bad, in short phrases

Step 2: Analysis

Consider the following list of system attributes. Which of them contributed to the good or bad experiences you listed in Step 1? Are there any attributes you would add to the list?

Attributes (expand after Step 1)

• Learnability (or discoverability): Is it easy to learn?
• Efficiency: Once users have learned the system, is it fast to use?
• Safety: Are errors rare? Are they recoverable?

We’ll read more about each of these attributes over the next week.

After we share our examples, we’ll go back to our examples and evaluate them based on these attributes.