{"id":22379,"date":"2020-12-28T13:09:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-28T17:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=22379"},"modified":"2021-01-04T00:26:40","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T04:26:40","slug":"light-switch-designs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/light-switch-designs\/","title":{"rendered":"Light Switch Designs: Common Design Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Are there many different light switch designs? What can light switch designs teach us about design thinking?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are nearly endless varieties of light switch designs, which can be frustrating in daily life. Light switch designs also serve as great examples for both good and bad design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to find out more about light switch designs and how it helps explain ideas of good and bad design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Light Switch Designs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Switches are another notorious offender when it comes to discoverability. <strong>The design and placement of switches need to provide two types of information: what type<\/strong><strong><em> <\/em><\/strong><strong>of object they control, and which specific object in the room corresponds to that specific switch. <\/strong>Traditionally, switches for all the lights in a room are grouped into one panel. This makes it easy to control everything from one spot but gets confusing quickly if the switches aren\u2019t arranged logically. For public spaces with many different users, this may require adding homemade labels as signifiers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/bycCg3MB1SrHficKvYP5JeqVweOatLoDSp6Glmvc-XAqPOrVeqrKSariYBVjbwe1AaIE-r_QHJgEk25XuTyWD4u6G6wcbHcG5mrwEuUTqDEE22C-FIAckdASnIzPljzr8hYqAWt7\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Is there a better way? The author recommends two solutions: a natural mapping approach (as discussed in Chapter 3) or an activity-centered approach. In the stovetop example, natural mapping is fairly straightforward, since all four controls and all four burners are in view simultaneously. For a lighting system where not all the lights are in view from any one spot, an overhead diagram of the room or entire floor makes mapping much easier.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/JCqS40uWjQ1FWhEY__qSPy9Lj37B1g92f_elkwVd6ZGuVz-Z05QFMLSdyFPapRdi2u67fQCNRpb-ztQw1JivBpSmGmIaGEBl2-uItZnAfkQIhEOjdwdTIf-JY7JQ3x6wAasQ7N4Q\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Another option to streamline multiple controls is an <\/strong><strong><em>activity-centered approach<\/em><\/strong><strong>, where controls are grouped by activity rather than by type. <\/strong>Lecture halls are a great candidate for this approach. Typical lecture halls have all the light controls grouped together on one panel, all the projector controls on another, and any other system controls randomly placed elsewhere. An activity-centered approach would instead group these controls based on activities, with options like \u201clecture mode\u201d or \u201cvideo mode.&#8221; For example, in \u201clecture mode,&#8221; the projector screen would lower into place, the projector itself would turn on and allow for presentation controls, and the lights would calibrate to illuminate both the screen and the speaker.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>One caveat with activity-centered approaches is that it is impossible to predict <em>every<\/em> activity that will happen in a space. There needs to be a way to override the system to allow each control to be adjusted independently for those cases.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are there many different light switch designs? What can light switch designs teach us about design thinking? There are nearly endless varieties of light switch designs, which can be frustrating in daily life. Light switch designs also serve as great examples for both good and bad design. Keep reading to find out more about light switch designs and how it helps explain ideas of good and bad design.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":22383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,9,160],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-22379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication","category-psychology","category-science","tag-the-design-of-everyday-things","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Light Switch Designs: Common Design Problems - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are endless types of light switch designs. This can help explain why some designs are good and some are bad. Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/light-switch-designs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Light Switch Designs: Common Design Problems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are endless types of light switch designs. This can help explain why some designs are good and some are bad. 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