Thoughtless Act:
In Thoughtless Act, Suri suggests that there are many different acts that we take in our life without noticing. Suri thinks that by being conscious of these thoughtless acts, we can open many new design possibilities that can make our lives better. This article is very intriguing for me by pointing out how details and keen observation matter in our daily life, not only in designing but in every aspect of our lives. Those acts and behavior choices that people are unconsciously making could actually reflect their internal needs. If we try to discover these acts, analyze and design around these needs, we will find that there are actually many things that we can do to improve our lives.
Affordance and Constraints
This article introduces the concepts of Affordance and Constraints, as well as the relationship between the two. In terms of affordance, the author suggests that there are two types of them, namely real affordance and perceived affordance. The former stands for a product’s actual usage as designed by its producers, and the latter stands for a product’s perceived usage by its users at their first glance. This is very interesting how these two often contradict each other, just like the example of people often misuse a door that should be pushed to open instead of pulled. This leads to the idea of physical constraints and cultural constraints. The article suggests that many design choices are actually based on these two types of constraints. However, it is important to make sure that these two do not conflict. We often see a product is designed to have a certain physical constraint for the purpose of its usage, whereas such physical constraint is disturbing by contradicting people’s day-to-day habits or convention. People are more tend to follow the cultural constraints or the convention that they follow in their lives. In my opinion, this is related to the previous topic that is the thoughtless acts. The idea of designing around the thoughtless acts is exactly one of the solutions to unite perceived affordance and real affordance together and make sure that we are not bothered by the conflicts of the conventions and physical constraints.