One of the deepest need people have is for control, or at least the sense of control. Good design acknowledges and fulfills this want.
Sometimes, the illusion of control can be achieved by placing placebo buttons on an interface. A placebo button, as Wikipedia puts it, “is a push-button with apparent functionality that actually has no effect when pressed, analogous to a placebo.”
Examples of buttons that don’t actually do anything:
- some close buttons in elevators,
- thermostats in some offices,
- many walk buttons at pedestrian crossings.
