The goal of this activity is to think about how to design interfaces for learnability.
Recall the thermostat example from lecture: some people believe that you can heat a room faster by setting the thermostat to a higher temperature than you really want, as if the thermostat were a valve for the heating system that lets more heat into the room the higher you set it. In fact, the thermostat is simply an on/off switch for the heat. It turns on as long as the room temperature is below the thermostat setting, and turns off when the thermostat setting is reached.
Design a thermostat user interface that communicates its conceptual model to the user more effectively, so that users don't make this mistake. Sketch your idea, but don't stop with your first. Critique it, and generate more designs. Don't worry too much about size, cost, difficulty of installation, or other tradeoffs. Be creative, and remember that we're focusing on usability in this class.
A few things to think about:
Go to the nearest wall of the classroom, and design a panel of light switches to control the room's lights, for installation on that wall. Devise a natural mapping between your switch panel and the lights it controls, so that a user can easily learn and remember how to use it. Don't stop with just one design, but sketch out a few.
A few things to think about: