Week 7: The Physical World Is Also a UI

Doors, chairs and vending machines have interfaces too, and they can lie to you the same way a checkout button can

19 April 2027

Bad design doesn’t require a screen. A door with a handle that reads “pull” but only opens if you push is running the exact same trick as a checkout button that reads “confirm” while it actually upgrades your order — an affordance that lies about what will happen. This week leaves software entirely to make that point with objects: chairs, packaging, public transport, signs, vending machines, road layouts, furniture, kitchen appliances all carry the same kind of expectation, and the same kind of betrayal, that software does.

Outline#

• affordances, signifiers and mapping — what an object promises, what it tells you, and whether the two line up
• what “hostile” means for something that has no error message
• Hostile Object Safari, this week’s session
• from objects to processes: next week’s subject