Supporting Function

Supporting Function is a fundamental design principle that refers to the auxiliary or secondary features, elements, or capabilities integrated into a design to enhance, complement, or facilitate its primary purpose. This critical aspect of interface design encompasses all supplementary mechanisms, visual cues, and interactive elements that work in concert with the main functionality to create a more comprehensive and effective user experience. In the context of design methodology, supporting functions serve as essential scaffolding that upholds the primary function while providing additional value through complementary operations, feedback mechanisms, or assistive features. These elements often manifest as tooltips, help documentation, status indicators, progress bars, or contextual information that guide users through complex processes or provide necessary clarification. The concept emerged from the systematic approach to design thinking, where functionality is hierarchically organized to ensure optimal user interaction and task completion. Supporting functions play a vital role in accessibility and universal design principles, making interfaces more inclusive and accommodating to diverse user needs. In professional design evaluation, such as the A' Design Award's assessment criteria, the implementation and effectiveness of supporting functions are considered crucial factors in determining the overall quality and usability of a design solution. The evolution of digital interfaces has particularly emphasized the importance of well-designed supporting functions, as they contribute significantly to reducing cognitive load, preventing user errors, and enhancing overall system efficiency. These auxiliary features must be carefully balanced to avoid overwhelming the primary function while remaining readily available when needed, demonstrating the sophisticated interplay between form and function in contemporary design practice.

Author: Lucas Reed

Keywords: interface design, user experience, accessibility, functional hierarchy, interaction design, usability enhancement

Help us improve the Design+Encyclopedia, contribute your alternative definition for Supporting Function today!

About the Design+Encyclopedia
The Design+Encyclopedia is a crowd-sourced reference of information on design. Unlike other crowd-sourced publications on design, the Design Encyclopedia is edited and actively monitored and publishing is only possible after review of submitted texts. Furthermore, editors of the Design Encyclopedia are mostly consisting of award winning designers who have proven their expertise in their design respective fields. Information posted at design encyclopedia is copyrighted, you are not granted a right to use the text for any commercial reasons, attribution is required. If you wish to contribute to the design encyclopedia, please first register or login to A' Design Award and then start a new design encyclopedia entry.