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Shelf-Awareness

A useful design question to always ask yourself: Is the shoe on the right shelf?

A couple of years ago I found myself in a pharmacy, doing a good deed and picking up some pain medications for my sister who’d hurt her back.

She had sent me the name of the meds, and as I’m never in a rush, I was slowly wandering around looking for them. I eventually spotted them, on a shelf, a couple of inches from the floor. Unthinkingly, and free of any back pain, I hunched down, grabbed them, paid and left.

It was only as I handed them over to my sister, as she gingerly moved about I realised that the person who designed the layout of that store had obviously never had any back pain.

A good rule of thumb when creating or designing anything is to try put yourself in the shoes of whomever will be interacting with it. It stands to reason that someone with a small shoe size is not going to be a giant, so if their shoe size is placed on a high shelf, an unnecessary barrier is being created.

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