What’s wrong with these doors?
Here’s a clue: how do you open them?
Pull?
Wrong – you push.
Now let’s look at the corresponding doors a couple of floors down:
It’s obvious you push these, isn’t it?
So what’s going on? It’s the affordances. The first set of doors has handles. That implicitly tells you to pull. The second set has plates to push against, making it obvious – there isn’t even any way to get it wrong.
How are the affordances in your program? Do your clues encourage them to do the right thing?
Get it right, and they won’t even notice. And that’s the best compliment they can make.
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