I have a problem, that I wasn't able to explain until I took this class. I have a bad habit of turing on the wrong burners on our stove top. This has gotten a little frustrating and some times a dangerous. And I'd usually feel pretty dumb. What I've learned by reading through Design of Everyday Things is that this is not my fault!
This is an image of a stove top that I found on the internet that looks similar to ours. The big difference is that the little circles they use to indicate which burner is which are "in perspective" so all the burner icons closer to me are bigger than the ones that are farther away. So in my mind I think "big icon = big burner" so I end up turning on the small burner on accident. Which is really frustrating to me.
I found this example as well on the internet, even though the knobs are in a bit of a unique place, the mapping. So based on this model, my accidents are not only caused by poor icons, but also by poor placement. there is no Clear indication of which knob belongs to which burners with out a label. In a way, you're just taking a chance.
Natural mapping works because it's based on models and actions that we normally take, and conventions as well, but mostly on how we normally act. They just make sense to us. Think about which knob on your car dash board you use the most. It's probably the volume button. Your volume button probably right next to the edge of the dash and all you have to do to change the volume os lift your hand up. My car also has a volume button on my steering wheel, but I hardly ever use it because it is way more natural to me lift my arm and twist than remove my had from the steering wheel and click a button on the from of it.
Natural mapping can prevent mistakes and also help the user experience be a lot more pleasant.
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