The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Author:Don Norman [Norman, Don]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780465072996
Publisher: Basic Books

CAPTURE SLIPS

I was using a copying machine, and I was counting the pages. I found myself counting, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King.” I had been playing cards recently.

The capture slip is defined as the situation where, instead of the desired activity, a more frequently or recently performed one gets done instead: it captures the activity. Capture errors require that part of the action sequences involved in the two activities be identical, with one sequence being far more familiar than the other. After doing the identical part, the more frequent or more recent activity continues, and the intended one does not get done. Seldom, if ever, does the unfamiliar sequence capture the familiar one. All that is needed is a lapse of attention to the desired action at the critical junction when the identical portions of the sequences diverge into the two different activities. Capture errors are, therefore, partial memory-lapse errors. Interestingly, capture errors are more prevalent in experienced skilled people than in beginners, in part because the experienced person has automated the required actions and may not be paying conscious attention when the intended action deviates from the more frequent one.

Designers need to avoid procedures that have identical opening steps but then diverge. The more experienced the workers, the more likely they are to fall prey to capture. Whenever possible, sequences should be designed to differ from the very start.

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