FINDING YOUR WAY IN A DIGITAL PHYSICAL WORLD

Tom Wellings www.emotivesystems.co.uk @tcwellings

UX Camp Brighton 2013 2nd November 2013

NAVIGATION = WAYFINDING + LOCOMOTION

Orientation and choosing a path

within an environment

Successful travel requires we know where

to go and how to get there

Where am I now?

Where do I go next / What do I want to do?

How do I get from here to there?

• Process involving a string of decisions

• Coordinated and GOAL driven movement through the

environment

Recreational wayfinding Emergency wayfinding

Learning language

• Markmaking: Children have to understand that marks signify something.

o Marks have meaning. They are symbolic - not just a mark on a piece of paper.

• Marks have a sound. String the marks together make words and language.

o Shared understanding of what marks mean - communication

‘OK’ meaning ‘select’ ‘OK’ meaning ‘confirm’

Words and symbols, in and of themselves have no

meaning

How are you feeling on

your new medication?

• We ascribe meaning to them - Cultural norms, context

We can understand this dialogue, but incorrect symbolism of ‘ok’ button feels uncomfortable

Semiotics

• Signs can be words, images, sounds, gestures and objects

• one-way communication to impart information : directions or

identification.

Language is very flexible, but 'words fail us' in attempting to represent some experiences.

• Mental construct • concept

• Material or physical • form

Shared meaning within language:

- Categories

Words or terms that co-occur frequently infer

synonymy

Coarse Juddery Rough

Jerky Rubbing Grinding

Jumpy Harsh

Smoothness

Data analysis Linguistic analysis

Shared meaning

Shared meaning in empirical data

- Regression equation

Affinity index

Index – Popular styles of dish (Argentinian)

Mixed index – ingredients, categories and methods

Navigation design guidelines

• Clarity – Ensure linguistic and semantic clarity

• Simplicity - Avoid jargon – speak language of user

• Saliency - Avoid redundancy and repetition – make labels easy to distinguish

• Context - Look for common (visual) language within domain

• Correlation - Avoid ambiguity and contradiction

• Tonality - Similarity of typography, colour, and form

Silfver, P., 2012. The Elements Of Navigation, 20 March 2012, Smashing Magazine. Available at:

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/03/20/the-elements-of-navigation [Accessed 31 October 2013].

Navigation through other senses

Product affordances also

provide navigation cues

Tactile and auditory cues

Visual vs. tactile navigation

In a world of the ‘digital self’, geo-location is meaningless:

• How do I know where I am in relation to other people?

• Where am I trying to get to?

• What landmarks will enable me to orient myself?

Perhaps…

• Reputation?

• Experience?

• Culture?

• Psychographics?

Tom Wellings Design research and UX specialist

tom@emotivesystems.co.uk

@tcwellings