What makes you push a button? What is ‘buttonness’? What is the cue that makes you, when faced with a vending machine, push the right bit of the interface - the button - so you get the right drink? I have always found this subject rather fascinating, from my observations about affordance to ketchup bottles to doorhandles, but this particular ‘buttonness’ is a good one as it gets me again and again, I never learn, and, in fact I don’t believe I can ever learn.
This particular vending machine offers about sixteen options or so, each represented by a square graphic area. The Gold Blend ‘interface’ has a large graphic area with two circles at the bottom. I always push the one that says ‘free’. And it never works. The button with the little cup is that one that works. When I first came to this machine I just pushed anywhere in the square graphical area, but I quickly learned that that didn’t work. But I never ever seem to learn that ‘free’ doesn’t work, and ‘little cup’ does.
On the other hand, the PG Tips ‘interface’ is very similar - large graphic area, two circles, with ‘free’ top left (apologies for the shaky picture, too much coffee…), but I never push ‘free’ on here, in fact I always get PG Tips right and press ‘little cup’.
Why is this? Well, I hope you aren’t expecting an answer, because I haven’t got one, only guesses. My best guess is that the PG Tips ‘free’ graphic has no real boundary edge and appears less pressable. The only other option is relative placement, and I find that hard to believe. But frankly, I just don’t know, and I can’t introspect into these aspects of my cognition. Like thin-slicing and neural networks, we just don’t know why. But the effect is immensely strong, and it does not appear possible to consciously override these ‘thoughtless’ actions using rationality and cognition. I think that I will always get it wrong, even though I know, rationally, that there is no such thing as a ‘free’ coffee.
Gladwell says: “I think its time we paid more attention to those fleeting moments. I think that if we did, it would change the way wars are fought, the kind of products we see on the shelves, the kinds of movies that get made, the way police officers are trained, the way couples are counseled, the way job interviews are conducted and on and on–and if you combine all those little changes together you end up with a different and happier world.”
Heres an example of an affordance being created when an individual wants to enter through a door. In this context, the handles afford pulling, but the message communicated by the signage is “push”. What is to do? Actually, you push, but the design of this doesn’t help you do this.
RSS Feed