Designed for Use

Takeaway Points

• People are good at recognizing user interface elements, so user interface elements don’t all need to look exactly the same.

• Things that do look similar need to do exactly the same thing, in exactly the same way, since people will try to apply their existing mental models to it.

• If you must create a version of a commonly used interface element that behaves differently, make sure that it looks different enough so that people won’t form false expectations. You don’t want to frustrate your users by creating a user interface element that doesn’t fit the behavioral model of a common, similar-looking element.