Behavioural design comes from the term behaviour. Behaviour means a response to an action and is not conscious.
Behavioural design is about use. Appearance doesn’t matter so much with behavioural design. From the worksheet there are 4 components of behavioural design: function, understandability, usability and the physical feel.
Function concentrates on the understanding of the product. If the end user can’t use the product than the product is useless.
Understandability is all about the feedback of the product. If the product doesn’t respond we automatically assume there is something wrong. There have been many products I have abandon due to no feedback.
Usability is about how usable the product is. How many people will use the product? Is it flexible without losing any usability? These are questions that should be address when thinking about usability.
Physical feel is hard to assess with a digital product. Physical objects have some type of feel, weight size, texture and surface are all considerations with physical feel. However these can be mimicked in the virtual world to give the user an idea of physical feel.
References:
Universal Prinicpals of Design. William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Bulter. Rockport Publishers 2003. Page 86
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