Author: Susan Weinschenk

Some designers have always designed for situations where people are at varying distances from the display, for example, signage in public places like train stations or airports, or displays on a factory floor or a hospital operating theater. But many designers are used to designing for people who are sitting in front of a desktop…

Smartphone screens have been getting larger over time. Our design and implementation tools let us design the screens without having to know or design for the exact size. If the software, site, or app is designed well, what appears on the screen at any given time varies automatically according to the size of the screen.…

If you ask someone to turn a button or knob that’s 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter, that’s going to be difficult, or even impossible, to do with one hand. People have physical limitations of movement, and range of motion based on body size and physical structure. If you’re an industrial designer, then you’re probably…

Tell a friend about the last time you went to visit a family member, and you’ll notice that you’re moving your hands and arms while telling the story. Your body is gesturing without you even thinking about it. Gesturing To Manipulate A Device As designers, we’re now building in gestures as a way for users…

A lot of the interfaces that designers create are digital interfaces for screens and pages, or auditory interfaces. There is also a specialty area in human factors and interface design that is all about interfaces that people physically touch. This is called “haptics”. K.E. MacLean (2008) writes about tactile feedback and user experience. People often…

If you think about why people think, feel, and behave in certain ways, you probably think about what’s going on in their brains. You might not realize how much people’s bodies influence their behavior. The field of “embodied cognition” is gaining more ground in cognitive science, psychology, and design. It’s the idea that people’s bodies—their…

It’s my opinion (uncorroborated by any science that I know about) that people who are drawn to design tend to be perfectionists. Being a designer, and being creative, means that you have an idea in your head about how something should be, and you work on it as long and hard as you can to…

I tend toward introversion. When I tell people that, they usually don’t believe me. I like being on stage: giving talks at conferences, performing in local community theater productions, singing as a jazz vocalist with a small ensemble. So when I tell people I’m an introvert, they usually laugh. “I am!” I assure them. As…

Before you continue in this chapter, I’d like you to do a short exercise. Do not read ahead. Do Step 1 first before reading any further: Step 1: Get a pen or pencil and a piece of paper, and take up to 30 seconds to write down as many things that are white as you…

A lot of my work involves activities for which I need a very quiet environment, but when I’m writing, I’m more creative and more productive when I have some amount of visual and/or auditory stimulation. For example, I found that when writing this book I was more creative and more productive when I did the…