Mistakes and Slips in interaction design
Mistakes are when you have the wrong goal for your action. These happen very often. You choose the wrong way to achieve your intention.
Here are some mistakes
Clicking on a heading that isn’t clickable
Intentionally double clicking a link or button
Typing both first and last name in the first name field
Entering today’s date instead of the date of birth
Replying to all in an email instead of just one person (an especially egregious mistake if the email is inflammatory)
Entering hyphens in your bank account number
Pushing the gas pedal instead of a break in an accident. Not slipping (literally) but mistakenly pushing the gas when panicking. Update: This just happened in my city a few hours after I posted this blog.
Slips are errors in reaching our objectives. Slips are very common. Selecting the wrong item when you meant to choose an other that is relatively similar.
Here are some slips
Mistyping an email address
Mistyping a password
Accidentally clicking an adjacent link
Clicking Reset instead of Submit (FYI don’t have a Reset button on a form).
Mistyping an email address in the “Re-Enter” email address field
Picking the wrong month when making a reservation
Accidentally double clicking a button (often with a double submitted form)
“The division occurs at the level of the intention: A Person establishes an intention to act. If the intention is not appropriate, this is a mistake. If the action is not what was intended, this is a slip.”– Don Norman, (1986: p. 414), http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/human_error_slips_and_mistakes.html
“Mistakes are errors in choosing an objective or specifying a method of achieving it whereas slips are errors in carrying out an intended method for reaching an objective.” -Sternberg 1996, http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/human_error_slips_and_mistakes.html
DesignsByNathan 