Ben Craven, first year tutor for Product Design Engineering, gave a lecture on human perception. Before working at GSA Ben was an academic in human psychology and perception at Stirling University.
He splits human perception of objects into 3 categories effortless, challenging and impossible. Arguing that as designers our aim should always be for the user to never require concentration and or apply a strategy to perceive a well designed object. An argument I definitely agree with. He went on to prove and discuss that the maximum number of objects someone can perceive effortlessly is 7 plus or minus 2. A fact that I was very keen to find out as it will really help my future projects! It makes sense too when you think about it and possibly I would have done it without knowing.
Ben also discussed how your brain automatically organises things, take these buttons in a train bathroom as a case study. Since there are four things that look the same with three smaller objects equally spaced between them that look the same. You cannot immediately group the buttons with the labels and it makes it confusing to use. A simpler way would have been to make the light at the top a different shape or colour or put the labels at the side of each button. Space is limited in this example so the designers have had to make some tough choices but what I learned from Ben's talk is that you have to consider how you can make a solution simpler and more elegant.
Arrows shouldn't be something you rely on ever to show what is going on in a final product, it must be immediately processed by the user what they must do with the product where possible. Obviously in complex scenarios they are sometimes necessary but they should be avoided at all costs.
Another thing ben discussed was just how smart the human brain is, and in some cases it provides you with the knowledge you need without you even having to process what's in front of you. For example in these illusions where you see coloured areas to be lighter or darker depending on how a shadows falls on them. Even though, the colours may be different to what you perceive what your brain is doing is disregarding the change the shadow makes because the information you want to know is the actual colour, not the colour with shadow.
One thing I wondered after the talk ended is the consequences of mindless tasks, would your brain become dumber if it wasn't challenged on a regular basis? I think it would. But probably for most products that is not their objective, they are designed to make life easier not harder. I think the argument Ben brought forward at the beginning of his talk is still one I agree with but with any rule I think there must be exceptions. Without a bit of challenge or thought life becomes soulless, we see this now with social media and constant scrolling without really knowing why you are doing it. Sometimes it's too easy to use a product, so much so that there isn't time to question if the product is worth using. In the modern world we want to encourage mindfulness not mindlessness.
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