I choose to write about the soda fountain in Bates dining hall. This machine presents its capability of providing various beverages to the user by having the brands of the beverages posted on each individual dispenser. The affordances are found on the buttons of each dispenser which reads “PUSH”. This way, the user knows that the must place their cup directly under the dispenser and push the button in order to receive their beverage. Additionally, there are very small levers attached to the Powerade and Brisk Iced Tea dispensers. To the upper left hand corner of these levers is a small sticker that reads “PULL” vertically, and on the levers is a sticker which reads either “WATER” or “SODA”. The wording and placement of the levers helps the user understand that they must pull the lever in order to receive the desired beverage instead of pushing the button. One thing the soda fountain’s affordances tell us about the user in its state is that the user must be able to read English in order to understand the directions.
Great choice of product and nice summary of some of the mapping and affordances. Please also remember to update the category to be mapping and affordances.
Here are some more areas to explore from the assignment:
How does the user know what to do first?
What kind of feedback does the object give to tell the user about its state?
What is the power draw of this object (e.g. laptop draws about 50 Watts of power)? You may be able to tell by looking at the back of the object, if it lets you. You may have to do some googling and do your best to figure it out or estimate it. Cite whatever source you use and/or justify your estimation. Compare this power draw to a laptop or another device of your choosing … given the utility of each device, does this power requirement feel justified to you? (For example, to me, the use of an incandescent lightbulb, at 50 Watts, does not seem worth it, since I can use an LED bulb that draws just 5-10 Watts and get very similar lumens of light).
By annotating the photo you took using an app like Skitch or software like Photoshop, or by hand, drawing a one page sketch of the vending machine, stress the user interface details (what does the user see, what can the user press, what is the mapping, etc). What’s important is (if you sketch by hand is NOT your artistic skill, but) your ability to clearly denote how the device functions.