Takeaway Points

  • Humans have ideas about how things work. The closer your product matches these ideas, the less people have to learn in order to use your product.

  • To match your users’ mental models, you often have to hide implementation details from them. Watch out for leaky abstractions.

  • To design for mental models, make your product simple, familiar, flexible, and safe. Provide feedback, and make it obvious to people what options they have at any given moment.

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