The Gulf of Execution (and Evaluation)
In case you can’t tell by now, Don Norman is probably my favorite UX guy on the planet. In my opinion, Norman has come up with, and most usefully conveyed, the best and most fundamental UX design principles, not to mention his endearing and funny personality.
One, (or should I say two, because each essentially flows opposite the other), of these design principles is that of the Gulf of Execution and its sister of sorts, the Gulf of Evaluation (though I will be talking mostly about the Gulf of Execution). Norman speaks of these two ideas in several of his writings — every one I’ve read so far, actually. However, for the purposes of this article, I’ve chosen to talk about his chapter on Cognitive Engineering from User Centered System Design, and his book, The Design of Everyday Things.
In “Cognitive Engineering,” Norman discusses a few of the main issues existing in human-computer interaction. The Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation are one set of these issues. These gulfs, he says, can both be bridged by the UX designer, starting from either side — that is, either the system/software side, or the user interface (Cognitive Engineering 38).
On a high level, the Gulf of Execution takes place when “people use something” and they “try to figure out how it operates” (Everyday Actions 38).
I’ll give a recent experience as an example.
This blogging enterprise is my first, and while I am good friends with Microsoft Office and Google Docs, I have never seen a blog draft before. So, when I opened my Medium account, and hit ‘New Story,’ I was given the following nearly blank screen:
Uhhhhhh…so you don’t upload a Word doc?
So what about pictures?
And how do I format text?
What about embedding?
None of this was immediately obvious to me. So I started clicking. And by trial and error, I started bridging the Gulf of Execution. (This article from Medium’s FAQ page was also helpful). Norman explains the necessity of bridging these gaps with two critical features of successful design: “feedback and a good conceptual model” (Everyday Actions 39).
As illustrated with the three-stage bridges above, feedback and conceptual modeling is an important majority of the execution bridge puzzle. And that’s why I will say that Medium effectively bridged the Gulf of Execution for me, even though it took a few minutes.
Feedback:
When I clicked the little button with the ‘+’, I immediately got a pop-up with buttons that afforded the insertion of photos, videos, embeds, and sections. Half my questions — answered. When I began typing, I realized that text in this medium afforded selection. Text selection yielded formatting options. So, in this example experience, Medium did an effective job of giving feedback based on intuitive affordances.
Conceptual Model:
Pretty simple. The Medium draft looks like a blank piece of paper. Blank paper affords writing and creation. And because I already had a conceptual model based on how other word processors work, this one’s affordances weren’t difficult to figure out.
So, a quick recap for you kids in the back: the Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation: reverse processes between the world and its goals. They can be bridged with smart UX design that include feedback and conceptual models (which go hand-in-hand with affordances). And Don Norman is awesome.
(Now go watch this TED Talk for more DN.)
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