This module delved into the design principles we should always consider when it comes to designing software products. I learned that design principles are proven solutions to the most common problems we’ll experience as designers. Above all, I learned how the design principles of perceivability and predictability help to make the purpose and function of a product clear.

I also learned about affordances and how these can help communicate how a product works, and understood that adhering to conventions in design can increase usability – you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel and conventions exist for a reason. I understand that the principles of constraints, feedback and forgiveness allow users to flow through software more easily and effectively. Adhering to these principles reduces effort and errors by the user and helps to ensure that they feel like experts when using the product. I also explored the powerful logic of Hick’s Law and Fitts’s Law.

Topics covered in Module 6

• Affordances

• Conventions

• Feedback

• Constraints

• Forgiveness

• Hick’s Law

• Fitts’s Law

• Progressive disclosure