Apply the Principle of Affordance to E-Learning

The advice to follow standards is good, but one has be be thoughtful about which standards. A recent example I encountered was a remote control that came with a new TV I got for my father. Both of us were baffled about how to raise or lower the volume from the remote, because the normal Volume Up/Down buttons were not present. Turns out the designer of the remote control put the volume control buttons on the side of the remote, instead of the front. That *does* follow a design standard, but it's the *wrong* design standard. Tiny little Volume Up/Down buttons are on the sides of many cell phones. But my father and I both have a lifetime of experience using television remote controls, and it is *not* a common practice in remote control design to have the volume controls on the side like that. Additionally, there were no affordances (or signifiers, if you prefer) in the form of labeling or icons or any other indication on the front of the remote that the volume controls were hidden on the side.

In the end, we returned the TV.