(Ebook) Laws of UX - Using Psychology to Design

Better Products & Services by Jon Yablonski ISBN

9781492055310, 149205531Xinstall download

https://ebooknice.com/product/laws-of-ux-using-psychology-to-
design-better-products-services-11020920

Download more ebook instantly today at https://ebooknice.com

 Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) ready for you
Download now and discover formats that fit your needs...

Start reading on any device today!

(Ebook) Laws of UX - Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services [ 2nd Ed
] by Jon Yablonski ISBN 9781098146962, 1098146964

https://ebooknice.com/product/laws-of-ux-using-psychology-to-design-better-
products-services-2nd-ed-55047008

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Collaborative Product Design: Working Better Together for Better UX by

Austin Govella ISBN 9781491975039, 1491975032

https://ebooknice.com/product/collaborative-product-design-working-better-
together-for-better-ux-10046204

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) App Design Apprentice: A Non-Designer’s Guide to Better Mobile UI and UX by

Prateek Prasad ISBN 9781950325207, 1950325202

https://ebooknice.com/product/app-design-apprentice-a-non-designers-guide-to-
better-mobile-ui-and-ux-33581264

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) Urban Design: A Typology of Procedures and Products by Lang, Jon ISBN
9781315642406, 9781138188358

https://ebooknice.com/product/urban-design-a-typology-of-procedures-and-
products-56159750

ebooknice.com
(Ebook) App Design Apprentice : A Non-Designer's Guide to Making Better Mobile UI &
UX (2nd Edition) by Prateek Prasad; raywenderlich Tutorial Team ISBN 9781950325696,
1950325695

https://ebooknice.com/product/app-design-apprentice-a-non-designer-s-guide-to-
making-better-mobile-ui-ux-2nd-edition-43772656

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough

Products and Services by T. Scott Gross ISBN 9780793176816, 0793176816

https://ebooknice.com/product/what-customers-want-using-outcome-driven-
innovation-to-create-breakthrough-products-and-services-1270292

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) A Guide to UX Design and Development : Developer's Journy Through the UX

Process by Tom Green, Joseph Labrecque

https://ebooknice.com/product/a-guide-to-ux-design-and-development-developer-s-
journy-through-the-ux-process-51263120

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) UX for Business : How to Design Valuable Digital Companies by Joel Marsh

https://ebooknice.com/product/ux-for-business-how-to-design-valuable-digital-
companies-54824878

ebooknice.com

(Ebook) The Design Thinking Playbook: Mindful Digital Transformation of Teams,

Products, Services, Businesses and Ecosystems by Michael Lewrick ISBN 9781119467502,
1119467500

https://ebooknice.com/product/the-design-thinking-playbook-mindful-digital-
transformation-of-teams-products-services-businesses-and-ecosystems-7206946

ebooknice.com
Laws of UX
Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services

Jon Yablonski
Laws of UX
Using Psychology to Design
Better Products & Services

Jon Yablonski
Laws of UX
by Jon Yablonski

Copyright © 2020 Jon Yablonski. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472.

O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online
editions are also available for most titles (https://oreilly.com). For more information, contact our
corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or [email protected].

Acquisitions Editor: Jessica Haberman Indexer: Ellen Troutman-Zaig

Development Editor: Angela Rufino Interior Designer: Monica Kamsvaag
Production Editor: Kristen Brown Cover Designer: Randy Comer
Copyeditor: Rachel Head Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest
Proofreader: Arthur Johnson

May 2020: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2020-04-21: First Release

See https://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781492055310 for release details.

The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. Laws of UX, the cover image,
and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.

The views expressed in this work are those of the author, and do not represent the publisher’s
views. While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the infor-
mation and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author dis-
claim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for
damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instruc-
tions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this
work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights
of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses
and/or rights.

978-1-492-05531-0

[LSI]
 Contents

| Preface v

1 | Jakob’s Law 1

2 | Fitts’s Law 13

3 | Hick’s Law 23

4 | Miller’s Law 35

5 | Postel’s Law 43

6 | Peak–End Rule 53

7 | Aesthetic–Usability Effect 65

8 | von Restorff Effect 77

9 | Tesler’s Law 87

10 | Doherty Threshold 97

11 | With Power Comes Responsibility 107

12 | Applying Psychological Principles in Design 121

| Index 129

iii
Preface

This book had its origins in what felt at the time like the most arduous point of
my design career, while I was working on a very challenging client project. From
the beginning, there were several indications that it would be an exciting albeit
difficult project: a relatively short timeline and a somewhat unfamiliar space, but
a well-known brand and the chance to help design something that’d be seen by
many across the world. These have always been my favorite kinds of projects
because they are the ones that offer the most opportunity to learn and grow,
which I’ve always striven to do. But this project was somewhat unique in one
specific way: I was being asked to justify a number of design decisions to project
stakeholders, without any data to support them. Normally, when you have quanti-
tative or qualitative data available to draw upon, this a pretty straightforward
task—but in this case the data wasn’t available, so the process of justifying the
decisions would have to be a little different. How do you validate initial designs
without any proof that there is a need to change the existing designs to begin
with? As you can imagine, design reviews quickly became a matter of subjectivity
and personal bias, resulting in designs that were more difficult to validate.
Then it occurred to me: psychology, which provides a deeper understanding
of the human mind, could be helpful in these circumstances. I quickly became
immersed in the rich and expansive field of behavioral and cognitive psychology,
and found myself reading through countless research papers and articles in order
to find empirical evidence that supported the design decisions I was making.
This research became quite useful in convincing project stakeholders to move in
the proposed design direction, and I felt as if I had found a treasure trove of
knowledge that would ultimately make me a better designer. There was only one
problem: finding good reference material online quickly turned into an exhaust-
ing task. Searches led me to a vast array of academic papers, scientific research,
and the occasional article in the popular press—none of which felt directly

v
vi | Preface

relatable to my work as a designer. I was looking for a designer-friendly resource

that just wasn’t available online, or at least not in the form I wanted it. Eventually
I decided to dive in and produce the resource I was looking for myself, resulting
in the creation of a website called Laws of UX (Figure P-1). This passion project
became a way for me to both learn and document what I was discovering at this
time.

Figure P-1. Screenshot of the Laws of UX website, circa 2020

The absence of quantitative or qualitative data related to the project I was

working on led me to look elsewhere, and what I discovered regarding the inter-
section of psychology and user experience (UX) design has been nothing short of
transformative for my practice. While such data, where available, remains valua-
ble, my foray into psychology helped form a solid foundation for my work
grounded in an understanding of how people behave, and why. This book is an
expansion of the Laws of UX website that focuses on various psychological prin-
ciples and concepts that I’ve found particularly useful as a designer.

Why I Wrote This Book

I wrote this book in order to make complex laws of psychology accessible to more
designers—specifically designers that don’t have background knowledge in psy-
chology or behavioral science. The intersection of psychology and UX design has
become an increasingly relevant topic in an era when design roles are having an
ever-stronger impact within organizations. Along with a growing focus on
design, there has been an increase in debate around which additional skills
 Preface | vii

designers should learn, if any, to increase their value and contribution. Should
designers code, write, or understand business? These skills are all valuable, but
perhaps not essential. However, I would argue that every designer should learn
the fundamentals of psychology.
As humans, we have an underlying “blueprint” for how we perceive and pro-
cess the world around us, and the study of psychology helps us decipher this
blueprint. Designers can use this knowledge to build more intuitive, human-
centered products and experiences. Instead of forcing users to adapt to the
design of a product or experience, we can use some key principles from psychol-
ogy as a guide for designing in a way that is adapted to people. This is the funda-
mental basis of human-centered design, and it is the foundation of this book.
But knowing where to start can be a challenge. Which principles from psy-
chology are useful? What are some examples of these principles at work? There’s
an endless list of laws and theories that occupy this space, but there are a few that
I’ve found particularly helpful and widely applicable. In this book, I explore these
concepts and present some examples of how they are effectively leveraged by
products and experiences we interact with every day.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone that wishes to improve their design craft, learn more
about the intersection of psychology and design, or simply explore why people
react to good design the way they do. It’s aimed at designers who want to have a
better understanding of psychology and how it impacts and overlaps with the
work we do. It’s for professional and aspiring designers alike: anyone who seeks
to understand how the overall user experience is affected by an understanding of
human perception and mental processes. While the book is specifically focused
on digital design as opposed to the more traditional mediums of graphic or
industrial design, the information it contains is broadly applicable to anyone
responsible for shaping user experience. I should also mention that it isn’t
intended to be a comprehensive resource, but rather an accessible introduction to
the psychology fundamentals that have a direct influence on design and how peo-
ple process and interact with the interfaces we create. It’s full of examples and
intended to be easily read and referenced by designers who wish to incorporate
this information into their daily work.
This book will also be relevant to anyone that seeks to understand the busi-
ness value of good design and why good design is transformative for businesses
and organizations. The field of UX design has grown and expanded into new
viii | Preface

areas thanks to the increase in investment by companies looking to gain a com-

petitive advantage. With this new interest has come the expectation that products
and services should be well designed, and simply having a website or mobile
application is no longer enough. Companies must ensure their websites and
applications, and any other digital experiences they offer, are helpful, effective,
and well designed. In order to achieve this, designers can, I believe, use psychol-
ogy as a guide, enabling them to design for how people actually perceive, process,
and interact not only with digital interfaces but also with the world.

What’s in This Book

Chapter 1, Jakob’s Law
Users spend most of their time on other sites, and they prefer your site to
work the same way as all the other sites they already know.
Chapter 2, Fitts’s Law
The time to acquire a target is a function of the distance to and size of the
target.
Chapter 3, Hick’s Law
The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and com-
plexity of choices available.
Chapter 4, Miller’s Law
The average person can keep only 7 (± 2) items in their working memory.
Chapter 5, Postel’s Law
Be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.
Chapter 6, Peak–End Rule
People judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak and at
its end, rather than on the total sum or average of every moment of the
experience.
Chapter 7, Aesthetic–Usability Effect
Users often perceive aesthetically pleasing design as design that’s more
usable.
Chapter 8, von Restorff Effect
When multiple similar objects are present, the one that differs from the
rest is most likely to be remembered.
 Preface | ix

Chapter 9, Tesler’s Law

Tesler’s law, also known as the law of conservation and complexity, states
that for any system there is a certain amount of complexity that cannot be
reduced.
Chapter 10, Doherty Threshold
Productivity soars when a computer and its users interact at a pace (<400
ms) that ensures that neither has to wait on the other.
Chapter 11, With Power Comes Responsibility
Here, we take a closer look at the implications of using psychology to create
more intuitive products and experiences.
Chapter 12, Applying Psychological Principles in Design
This chapter considers ways designers can internalize and apply the psy-
chological principles we’ve looked at in this book and then articulate them
through principles that relate back to the goals and priorities of their team.

O’Reilly Online Learning

For more than 40 years, O’Reilly Media has provided tech-
nology and business training, knowledge, and insight to
help companies succeed.
Our unique network of experts and innovators share their knowledge and
expertise through books, articles, and our online learning platform. O’Reilly’s
online learning platform gives you on-demand access to live training courses, in-
depth learning paths, interactive coding environments, and a vast collection of
text and video from O’Reilly and 200+ other publishers. For more information,
visit https://oreilly.com.

How to Contact Us
Please address comments and questions concerning this book to the publisher:
O’Reilly Media, Inc.
1005 Gravenstein Highway North
Sebastopol, CA 95472
800-998-9938 (in the United States or Canada)
707-829-0515 (international or local)
x | Preface

We have a web page for this book, where we list errata, examples, and any
additional information. You can access this page at https://oreil.ly/laws-of-UX.
Email [email protected] to comment or ask technical questions
about this book.
For news and more information about our books and courses, see our web-
site at https://oreilly.com.
Find us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/oreilly
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oreillymedia
Watch us on YouTube: http://youtube.com/oreillymedia

Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I must acknowledge and thank my wife Kristen, whose love
and support have been both endless and critical in so many ways—without her
this book would not have been possible. Thanks also to my mom, the strongest
person I know and the one who encouraged, supported, and enabled me to fol-
low my dreams to begin with, and to James Rollins, a man I’m forever grateful to
have in my life and the lives of my family. I’d like to also acknowledge all of my
design colleagues who helped with the book in some way or another: in no partic-
ular order, Jonathan Patterson and Ross Legacy for always-on-point design advice
and feedback; Xtian Miller for the encouragement, feedback, and words of wis-
dom; and Jim and Lindsey Rampton, Dave Thackery, Mark Michael Koscierzyn-
ski, Amy Stoddard, Boris Crowther, Trevor Anulewicz, Clemens Conrad, and
countless others for the support and encouragement. I also owe a debt of grati-
tude to all the individuals involved in the project that inspired this book, who
therefore directly influenced its creation. I’d like to thank Jessica Haberman, who
saw the potential in me to become an author and encouraged me to begin the
endeavor of writing this book. And finally, I owe Angela Rufino a great deal of
gratitude for all the advice, patience, and feedback throughout the process.
 | 1

Jakob’s Law

Users spend most of their time on other sites, and they prefer your site to
work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

Key Takeaways

• Users will transfer expectations they have built around one familiar
product to another that appears similar.
• By leveraging existing mental models, we can create superior user
experiences in which the users can focus on their tasks rather
than on learning new models.
• When making changes, minimize discord by empowering users to
continue using a familiar version for a limited time.

Overview
There is something incredibly valuable to be found in familiarity. Familiarity
helps the people interacting with a digital product or service know immediately
how to use it, from interacting with the navigation to finding the content they
need to processing the layout and visual cues on the page in order to understand
the choices available to them. The cumulative effect of mental effort saved
ensures a lower cognitive load. In other words, the less mental energy users have
to spend learning an interface, the more they can dedicate to achieving their
objectives. The easier we make it for people to achieve their goals, the more likely
they are to do so successfully.

1
2 | LAWS OF UX

As designers, it is our objective to ensure people successfully achieve their

goals when using the interfaces we’ve built by eliminating as much friction as
possible. Not all friction is bad—in fact, sometimes it is even necessary. But
when there is an opportunity to remove or avoid extraneous friction, or friction
that doesn’t provide value or service a purpose, then we should do so. One of the
primary ways designers can remove friction is by leveraging common design pat-
terns and conventions in strategic areas such as page structure, workflows, navi-
gation, and placement of expected elements such as search. When we do this, we
ensure people can immediately be productive instead of first having to learn how
a website or app works. In this chapter, we’ll take a look at some examples of how
this design principle can be achieved—but first, let’s look at its origins.

Origins
Jakob’s law (also known as “Jakob’s law of the internet user experience”) was put
forth in 2000 by usability expert Jakob Nielsen, who described the tendency for
users to develop an expectation of design conventions based on their cumulative
experience from other websites.1 This observation, which Nielsen describes as a
law of human nature, encourages designers to follow common design conven-
tions, enabling users to focus more on the site’s content, message, or product. In
contrast, uncommon conventions can lead to people becoming frustrated, con-
fused, and more likely to abandon their tasks and leave because the interface
does not match up with their understanding of how things should work.
The cumulative experience that Nielsen refers to is helpful for people when
visiting a new website or using a new product because it informs their under-
standing of how things work and what’s possible. This underlying factor is per-
haps one of the most important in user experience, and it is directly related to a
psychological concept known as mental models.

1 Jakob Nielsen, “End of Web Design,” Nielsen Norman Group, July 22, 2000, https://www.nngroup.com/
articles/end-of-web-design.
 JAKOB’S LAW | 3

PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT

Mental Models
A mental model is what we think we know about a system, especially
about how it works. Whether it’s a digital system such as a website or a
physical system such as a checkout line in a retail store, we form a model
of how a system works, and then we apply that model to new situations
where the system is similar. In other words, we use the knowledge we
already have from past experiences when interacting with something
new.
Mental models are valuable for designers because we can match our
designs to our users’ mental models to improve their experience by ena-
bling them to easily transfer their knowledge from one product or experi-
ence to another, without the need to first take the time to understand
how the new system works. Good user experiences are made possible
when the design of a product or service is in alignment with the user’s
mental model. The task of shrinking the gap between our own mental
models and those of the users is one of the biggest challenges we face,
and to achieve this goal we use a variety of methods: user interviews,
personas, journey maps, empathy maps, and more. The point of these
various methods is to gain a deeper insight into not only the goals and
objectives of our users but also users’ preexisting mental models and
how all of these factors apply to the product or experience we are
designing.
4 | LAWS OF UX

Examples
Have you ever wondered why form controls look the way they do (Figure 1-1)? It’s
because the humans designing them had a mental model of what these elements
should look like, which they based on control panels they were familiar with in
the physical world. The design of web elements like form toggles, radio inputs,
and even buttons originated from the design of their tactile counterparts.

Figure 1-1. Comparison between control panel elements and typical form elements
(source: Jonathan H. Ward [left], Google’s Material Design [right])

When our designs do not align with the user’s mental model, there will be
problems. A misalignment can affect not only how users perceive the products
and services we’ve helped build, but also the speed at which they understand
them. This is called mental model discordance, and it occurs when a familiar prod-
uct is suddenly changed.
One notorious example of mental model discordance is the 2018 redesign of
Snapchat. Instead of gradually introducing changes through slow iteration and
extensive beta testing, the company launched a major overhaul that dramatically
changed the familiar format of the app by combining watching stories and com-
municating with friends in the same place. Unhappy users immediately took to
Twitter and expressed their disapproval en masse. Even worse was the subse-
quent migration of users to Snapchat’s competitor, Instagram. Snap CEO Evan
Spiegel had hoped that the redesign would reinvigorate advertisers and allow for
ads to be customized to users, but instead it caused ad views and revenue to drop
and led to the app’s user count dramatically shrinking. Snapchat failed to ensure
the mental model of its users would be aligned with the redesigned version of the
app, and the resulting discordance caused a major backlash.
 JAKOB’S LAW | 5

But major redesigns don’t always drive users away—just ask Google. Google
has a history of allowing users to opt in to redesigned versions of its products,
like Google Calendar, YouTube, and Gmail. When the company launched the
new version of YouTube in 2017 (Figure 1-2) after years of essentially the same
design, it allowed desktop users to ease in to the new Material Design UI without
having to commit. Users could preview the new design, gain some familiarity,
submit feedback, and even revert to the old version if they preferred it. The inevi-
table mental model discordance was mitigated by simply empowering users to
switch when they were ready.

Figure 1-2. Before (left) and after (right) comparison of YouTube redesign in 2017
(source: YouTube)

Most ecommerce websites also leverage preexisting mental models. By mak-

ing use of familiar patterns and conventions, shopping sites such as Etsy
(Figure 1-3) can effectively keep customers focused on the important stuff—find-
ing and purchasing products. By conforming to users’ expectations about the
process of selecting products, adding them to the virtual cart, and checking out,
designers can ensure users are able to apply their accumulated knowledge from
previous ecommerce experiences; the whole process feels comfortable and
familiar.
6 | LAWS OF UX

Figure 1-3. Ecommerce sites like Etsy leverage preexisting mental models to keep customers
focused on purchasing products rather than on learning new interaction patterns
(source: Etsy, 2019)

The use of mental models to inform design isn’t isolated to the digital space.
Some of my favorite examples can be found in the automotive industry, specifi-
cally in regard to controls. Take, for instance, the 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC 400
Prototype (Figure 1-4). The seat controls found on the door panel next to each
seat are mapped to the shape of the seat. The resulting design makes it easy for
users to understand which part of their seat they can adjust by identifying the
corresponding button. It’s an effective design because it builds on our preexisting
mental model of a car seat and then matches the controls to that mental model.

Figure 1-4. Seat controls in the 2020 Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 Prototype,
informed by the mental model of a car seat (source: MotorTrend, 2018)
 JAKOB’S LAW | 7

These examples demonstrate how we can leverage users’ existing mental

models to enable them to become immediately productive. In contrast, failure to
consider the mental model a user has formed can result in confusion and frustra-
tion. The conclusion here also begs an important question: does Jakob’s law
argue that all websites or apps should behave identically? Additionally, does it
suggest that we should use only preexisting UX patterns, even when there’s a
more appropriate solution that’s new?

TECHNIQUE

User Personas
Have you ever heard another designer within your company or organiza-
tion refer to “the user,” but it wasn’t quite clear whom exactly this elusive
person was? The process of design becomes more difficult when a
design team lacks a clear definition of its target audience, leaving each
designer to interpret it in their own way. User personas are a tool that
helps solve this problem by framing design decisions based on real
needs, not the generic needs of the undefined “user.” These fictional rep-
resentations of a specific subset of the target audience are based on
aggregated data from real users of a product or service (Figure 1-5).

Figure 1-5. User persona example

8 | LAWS OF UX

Personas are intended to foster empathy and serve as memory aids,

as well as to create a common mental model of the traits, needs, motiva-
tions, and behaviors of a specific kind of user. The frame of reference
that personas help to define is incredibly valuable for teams: it helps
team members move away from self-referential thinking and focus on
the needs and goals of the user, which is useful for prioritizing new
features.
Any details about the user that are relevant to the feature or product
you’re building will be useful. The items common to most personas
include:

Info
Items such as a photo, memorable tagline, name, age, and occupa-
tion are all relevant for the information section of a persona. The
idea here is to create a realistic representation of the members of a
specific group within your target audience, so this data should be
reflective of the similarities they share.

Details
The information within the details section of a user persona helps
to build empathy and align focus on the characteristics that impact
what is being designed. Common information here includes a bio to
create a deeper narrative around the persona, behavioral qualities
that are relevant, and frustrations this particular group might have.
Additional details could include things like goals and motivations, or
tasks the user might perform while using the product or feature.

Insights
The insights section of a user persona helps to frame the attitude of
the user. The intention here is to add an additional layer of context
that provides further definition of the specific persona and their
mindset. This section often includes direct quotes from user
research.
 JAKOB’S LAW | 9

KEY CONSIDERATION

Sameness
I know what you’re thinking: if all websites or apps followed the same
design conventions, that would make everything quite boring. This is a
completely valid concern, especially given the ubiquity of specific con-
ventions that can be observed today. This pervasive sameness can be
attributed to a few factors: the popularity of frameworks to speed up
development, the maturity of digital platforms and resulting standards,
clients’ desire to emulate their competition, and just plain lack of creativ-
ity. While much of this sameness is purely based on design trends, there
is a good reason we see patterns with some conventions, such as the
placement of search, navigation in the footer, and multistep checkout
flows.
Let’s take a moment to consider the alternative: imagine that each
and every website or app that you used was completely different in every
regard, from the layout and navigation down to the styling and common
conventions like the location of the search feature. Considering what
we’ve learned about mental models, this would mean that users could no
longer rely on their previous experiences to guide them. Their ability to
be instantly productive in achieving the goal they wanted to accomplish
would be immediately thwarted because they would first have to learn
how to use the website or app. It is no stretch of the imagination to see
that this would not be an ideal situation, and conventions would eventu-
ally emerge out of pure necessity.
That’s not to say that creating something entirely new is never
appropriate—there’s certainly a time and a place for innovation. But
designers must determine the best approach by taking into considera-
tion user needs and context, in addition to any technical constraints,
before reaching for something unique, and they must take care not to
sacrifice usability.
10 | LAWS OF UX

Conclusion
Jakob’s law isn’t advocating for sameness in the sense that every product and
experience should be identical. Instead, it is a guiding principle that reminds
designers that people leverage previous experience to help them in understand-
ing new experiences. It is a not-so-subtle suggestion that (when appropriate)
designers should consider common conventions that are built around existing
mental models to ensure users can immediately be productive instead of first
needing to learn how a website or app works. Designing in a way that conforms
to expectations allows users to apply their knowledge from previous experiences,
and the resulting familiarity ensures they can stay focused on the important
stuff—finding the information they need, purchasing a product, etc.
The best piece of advice I can give in regard to Jakob’s law is to always begin
with common patterns and conventions, and only depart from them when it
makes sense to. If you can make a compelling argument for making something
different to improve the core user experience, that’s a good sign that it’s worth
exploring. If you go the unconventional route, be sure to test your design with
users to ensure they understand how it works.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 THE ROUT OF THE MAHIKI

The location of the adventure with the shark-god Maka’u-kiu1 was at the
mouth of Wai-pi’o valley, a region where Hawaii’s storm-coast forms an
impassable rampart, save as it is cut by this and its twin valley, Wai-manu.
These valleys take head in a wild forest region, the home of mist, rain and
swamp. Adjoining this and part of the same watershed is the region known
as Mahiki-waena, a land which the convenience of traffic required should
be open to travel. It was the haunt of a ferocious horde of mo’o called
mahiki2 from their power to leap and spring like grass-hoppers.

When Hiiaka proposed to pass through this region in the ordinary course of
travel, the head of the Mahiki insolently denied her the right of way,
suggesting as an alternative the boisterous sea-route around the northern
shoulder of Hawaii. Hiiaka’s blood was up. The victory over the hosts of
Pana-ewa and the more recent destruction of Maka’u-kiu had fired her
courage. She resolved once for all to make an end of this arrogant nuisance
and to rid the island of the whole pestilential brood of imps and mo’o.
Standing on a height that overlooked Wai-pi’o, she chanted a mele which is
at once descriptive of the scene before her and at the same time expressive
of her determination:

Mele Uhau

A luna au o Wai-pi’o,
Kilohi aku k’uu maka ilalo;
Hele ho’i ke ala makai o Maka’u-kiu;
Hele ho’i ke ala mauka o Ka-pu-o’a—
Pihapiha, he’e i ka welowelo,
I ka pu’u Kolea, i ka ino, e—
Ino Mahiki:
Ua ike ka ho’i au, he ino Mahiki,
He ino, he ino loa no, e!
 TRANSLATION

As I journeyed above Wai-pi’o

Mine eyes drank in that valley—
The whole long march as far as from
The sea-fight at Maka’u-kiu
Till the trail climbs Ka-pu-o’a.
There soggy the road and glairy,
And there do flaunt and flourish,
On Plover Mount, the cursed Mahiki.
For I am convinced that that crew
Are bad, as bad as bad can be!

Hiiaka’s march to encounter the Mahiki was interrupted for a short time by
an incident that only served to clinch her resolution. An agonizing cry of
distress assailed her ear. It came from a dismantled heap of human flesh, the
remains of two men who had been most brutally handled—by these same
Mahiki, perhaps—their leg and arm-bones plucked out and they left to
welter in their misery. It was seemingly the cruel infliction of the Mahiki.
The cry of the two wretches could not be disregarded:

E Hiiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele, e,
E ki’i mai oe ia maua;
E ka hookuli i ka ualo, e!
Ka opu aloha ole, e-e!

TRANSLATION

O Hiiaka-of-Pele’s-heart,
Come thou and assist us.
Turn not a deaf ear to our cry!
Be not of hard and unfeeling heart!

Hiiaka, with a skill that did credit to her surgery, splinted the maimed limbs,
inserting stems from her favorite ti plant to take the place of the long bones
that had been removed. She left them seated in comfort at the roadside at
Pololú.
The Mahiki, on seeing Hiiaka advance into their territory, threw up the dirt
and dust in their front, to express their contempt for such an insignificant
body of trespassers. Hiiaka, paying no attention to their insolence, pressed
on. Her purpose was to strike directly at Mo’o-lau, the leader of the horde,
to whom she addressed this incantation:

A loko au o Mahiki,
Halawai me ke Akua okioki po’o.
Okioki ino, la, i kona po’o;
Kahihi a’e la i kona naau;
Hoale mai ana i kona koko i o’u nei.
E Lau e, Lau e-e!
No’u ke ala, i hele aku ho’i, e-e!

TRANSLATION

I enter the land of Mahiki;

I counter the head-hunting witch.
See me pluck the head from her body;
See me tear out her very heart,
Till her blood surges round me in waves—
Blood of the monster that’s legion.
Mine is the common right of way:
The traveler’s right to the road!

At dark Hiiaka camped in the road and during the night a female ku-pua
named Lau-mihi, whom the Mahiki chief had sent as a spy to watch Hiiaka,
was seen standing on a high place to one side of them. Hiiaka at once flew
at her and put an end to her.

Now began a fierce battle between Hiiaka and the Mahiki dragon and his
forces. They fought till both sides were exhausted and then, as if by mutual
consent, stopped to rest.

Hiiaka perceived that the battle was to be even more fiercely contested than
that at Pana-ewa. She bade Paú-o-pala’e to take good care that no ill came
to Wahine-oma’o. Looking up into the heavens, Hiiaka saw her relatives
and friends Poha-kau, Ka-moho-alii, Kane-milo-hai, and a large concourse
of other gods, including Kane, Kanaloa, Ku and Lono, watching her,
evidently greatly interested in her performances. They assured her of their
protection. At this Hiiaka was much encouraged and gave utterance to her
feelings in this kanaenae:

A Moolau, i ka pua o ka uhiuhi,

Helele’i mai ana ka pua o Ko’o-ko’o-lau.
Lohi’a e na mo’o liilii—
Na mo’o liilii ke ala
E kolo i ke kula,
E iho i kai o Kawaihae, la.
Hea a’e la ka mo’o liilii:
E hakaká kaua; paio olua auane’i.
He ’kau Mo’o-lau, o Mo’o-lau akua, e!

TRANSLATION

In the wilds of Mo’o-lau,

The uhiuhi’s time for bloom—
The petals fall of Koolau’s flower:
The little dragons have found the way
By which they can crawl to the plain,
Go down to the sea at Kawaihae.
The little demons now announce
That you and I shall battle wage:
We two, indeed, must fight, they say—
A god is Mo’o-lau, a host of gods!

At this the great dragon Mo’o-lau bestirred himself. His attack was direct,
but he divided his host into two columns so as to envelope Hiiaka and
attack her on each flank. Hiiaka saw them approaching through the jungle
and chanted the following rallying song:

Mele Ho’-uluulu

A Mo’o-lau, i ka pua o ka uhiuhi,

 Pala luhi ehu iho la
Ka pua o ke kauno’a i ka la;
Na hale ohai i Kekaha, o Wa’a-kiu;—
E kiu, e kiu ia auane’i kou ahiahi;
E maka’i ia olua auane’i.
He akua Mo’o-lau, o Mo’o-lau akua, e!

TRANSLATION

In the jungle of Mo’o-lau,

The uhi-uhi’s season of bloom;
The flower of the rootless kau-no’a
Is wilted and bent in the sun;
My bower in Kekaha’s invaded:
Some creature is playing the spy.
I, in turn,—be warned—will spy out
Your quiet and rest of an evening:
This to you, you, god Mo’o-lau!

Pele, perceiving that the crisis of the conflict had now come, called upon all
the male and female relatives of Hiiaka (hoaiku) to go to her assistance;
“Go and help your sister Hiiaka. There she is fighting desperately with
Mo’o-lau—fighting and resting, fighting and resting, well nigh exhausted.
Go and help her; all of you go. It’s a fight against Mo’o-lau.”

When the battalion of gods moved against the mo’o, it was a rout and a
slaughter. Then the cry arose: “No fight has been made against the Mahiki
dragon; he yet survives.” Thereupon they turned their attack against that old
dragon and his guards. Hiiaka then celebrated the double victory in this
paean:

Kaiko’o Pu’u-moe-awa, wawá ka laau;

Nei o Pu’u-owai ma, e:
Nahá ka welowelo; he’e na’e ho’i, e!
E Pu’u-owai ma, e, ke holo la!
E Miki-aloalo, e, nawai ka make?
 Ke i-o nei, e!

TRANSLATION

A roar as of surf on the hill Moe-awa:

The tumult resounds through the forest:
Pu’u-owai and his band lead the rout,
Your battallions are torn into tatters—
You are running, Captain Owai!
And you, Captain Spry, whose the defeat?
The answer is made by the shouting!

Hiiaka’s chief weapon of attack seems to have been her magical paú. With
this as a besom she beat them down as a husbandman might beat down a
swarm of locusts. The Mahiki and the Mo’o-lau had ceased to exist as
organized bodies. But from the rout and slaughter of the armies many
individuals had escaped with their lives, and these had hid themselves away
in caves and secret places, some of them even, presuming apparently upon
their power of disguise, had taken refuge in the remote scattered habitations
of the people. Such an inference seems to be justified by the language of the
mele now to be given:

Note.—The gods that came to the assistance of Hiiaka such times as circumstances pinched her and
whose spiritual power at all times reënforced her feeble humanity were limited in their dominion to
certain vaguely defined provinces and departments. Thus, if there was any sea-fighting to be done, it
fell to the shark-god, the Admiral Ka-moho-alii, to take charge of it. On the other hand, the conduct
of a battle on terra firma would be under the generalship of Kane-milo-hai; while to Kana-loa
belonged the marshalling of the celestial hosts, the moon and the stars. But the orb of day, the Sun,
belonged to Lono. Hence, if the fighting was during the hours of daylight, Lono would logically
assume the command. The rule of the great god Ku was also exercised principally by day. It was he
who arranged the calendar and settled the order of the seasons, the days and the nights. The
subdivisions and departmental complications under these general divisions were numerous.

Lilo i Puna, lilo i Puna,

Lilo i Puna, i ke au a ka hewahewa;
 Popo’i aku ka i na hale:
Ua piha na hale i ke ’kua—
O Kini Akua o Wai-mea,
O ka Lehu Akua o Maná.
Kini wale Wai-mea
I ka pihe o ke ’kua o Uli, e.
Po wale Mahiki;
A ia Mahiki ke uwá la no, e!

TRANSLATION

Scattered through Puna, scattered through Puna,

Is the rout of the vagrant imps:
They swarm in the dwellings of men;
The houses are lousy with demons—
Wai-mea’s myriads of godlings,
Thy four hundred thousand, Maná.
Wai-mea thrills with the snarl of witch-gods:
Night’s shadows brood over Mahiki;
The uproar keeps on in Mahiki.

1 Maka’u-kiu, afeared-o-a-spy. ↑
2 Ma-hi-ki (mahiti, mawhiti), to leap, to skip, to spring up suddenly. The Maori Comp.
Dict. E. Tregear. ↑
CHAPTER XIII
 HIIAKA LOOPS BACK IN HER JOURNEY
Hiiaka, having thus far, as it would seem, journeyed along the western coast
of Hawaii, now loops back in her course and travels in the direction of Hilo
by the way of Hamakua, for the seeming purpose of completing her work of
extermination. Like a wise general, she would leave no enemies in her rear.

When they came into the neighborhood of Wahine-oma’o’s home, that girl
spoke up and said, “I think we had better take another road. If we keep to
this one, which passes by my door, my parents, who will be watching for
me, will see me and will want me to remain with them.” This she said by
reason of her great desire to continue in Hiiaka’s company. True enough,
when they caught sight of her old home, there sat her mother Puna-hoa and
her father Kai-pala-oa.

“There they sit,” said the girl. “If they recognize me they will want to keep
me.”

Hiiaka bade Wahine-oma’o fall in behind her, hunch her shoulders, bend
forward her head and walk with short infirm steps in imitation of an old
woman. Hiiaka, on coming close to the old people, using the language of
song, asked directions as to the road:

E Puna-hoa i Kai-pala-oa,
I na maka o Nana-kilo ma
E nonoho mai la, e.
Auhea ka ala, e?

TRANSLATION

O Puna-hoa and Kai-pala-oa,

You with the clear-scanning eyes,
Sitting at rest before me,
Point me out now the road.
“The road is plain enough; you are taking the right way.… We are looking
at that young woman of your party—she has such a strong resemblance to
our missing daughter, save her way of shuffling and holding her head.”

On reaching the outskirts of the village of Hilo, Hiiaka found a rickety foot-
bridge, consisting of a single narrow and wobbly plank, liable to turn at
every step and precipitate the passenger into the tumbling waters below—
and this was the only passage across the rocky chasm of the Wai-luku1
river. This precarious crossing was the work of two sorcerers, degenerate
nondescripts, who had the audacity to levy toll for the use of their bridge, in
default of which the traveler suddenly found himself precipitated into the
raging water. By virtue of their necromantic powers, they had the
presumption to claim spiritual kinship with Hiiaka, a bond the woman could
not absolutely repudiate.

“Here comes our mo’o-puna,”2 called out Pili-a-mo’o to his companion.

“Well, what of it? She will have to pay her fare the same as anyone else,”
replied Noho-a-mo’o. “Only on that condition shall she cross by our
bridge.”

On Hiiaka’s attempting to cross without paying toll, the two sorcerers

would, following their own practice, have disarranged the treacherous plank
and precipitated her and her party into the raging stream.

“Well said,” Noho-a-mo’o replied; “provided she will consent to it.”

Hiiaka now called to them in the language of song:

Kahuli-huli,3 e-e,
Ka papa o Wai-luku!
Kahuli o Apua,
Ha’a mai o Mau-kele:
He ole ke kaha kuai ai, e-e!
Homai ka ai,
Homai ho’i ka ai, e-e!
 I ai’na aku ho’i, e-e!

TRANSLATION

Cranky, cranky the bridge,

Bridge across the Wai-luku!
Upset is Apua;
Maukele declares that
The barter of food is naught.
Give us then of your food;
Give us something to eat;
Let us partake of your meat.

To this unusual demand they replied, “Indeed, do you imagine we will do

any such thing as that? It is not for us to give to you; you must give us the
fare before you cross on our bridge. We don’t give away things for
nothing.”

Hiiaka replied by repeating her request in nearly the same words:

Ka-huli-huli, e-e,
Ka papa o Wai-luku.
He ole ke kaha kuai i’a, e!
Ho-mai ka i’a;
Ho-mai ana, ho’i, ka i’a,
I ai’na aku, ho’i, e-e!

TRANSLATION

Unstable the bridge,

Bridge that spans the Wai-luku.
This barter of fish is a fraud.
Give us of your fish;
Grant us kindly some meat;
Give us something to eat.
Hiiaka repeated her demands in varying form with no other effect than to
make the toll-keepers more stubborn in their ridiculous demands. Not even
when Hiiaka, as if to cap the climax of their absurdity, ended her demand
with this ironical request:

Ho-mai, ho’i, ka wai, e;

I inu ia aku, ho’i, e!!

TRANSLATION

Give us of this water,

Give us water to drink!

Hiiaka now openly denounced the two sorcerers as being simply mo’o in
disguise, entirely wanting in those generous feelings that belong to
godhood. “These creatures are simply mo’o. If I attack them, they will run
for their lives.”

The people, failing to recognize Hiiaka as their deliverer, spiritless from

long habituation to the fraudulent dominion of these imposters, fearful also
of their vengeance, stoutly opposed Hiiaka, affirming that Pili-a-mo’o and
Noho-a-mo’o were gods in reality, having great power and capable of doing
many wonderful things. They declared their readiness to back their opinion
with their property, yes, with their lives. They were at length persuaded,
however, to accept as decisive the test proposed by Hiiaka, namely, that, if
they fled when attacked, they should cease to be regarded as gods and
should be dealt with as imposters.

True to Hiiaka’s prediction, the mo’o, in abject fear, turned and fled for
their lives at her first threatening move and she now called upon the people
to pursue and destroy them:

Kaumaha ka aï o Hilo i ka lehua

Mai ka Nuku-o-ka-manu4 a Puna-hoa, e.
Hoa ia iho la kau kanáka,
I pa’a, o pahe’e auane’i;
Hina i ka Lua-kanáka.
 He kanáka! He mau akua, e!

TRANSLATION

The neck of Hilo is heavy,

Weighted with wreaths of lehua
From Bird-beak clean down to the feet.
Catch and bind these robbers of men;
Bind them fast, lest they slip through your hands
And escape to the robber-pit—
These mortals, who call themselves gods!

The meaning of the figure in the first two verses, though obscure, seems to
be that Hilo, so rich in natural beauty, is by that very fact robbed of the
energy to defend herself and cast off the incubus that oppresses her.

As the creatures fled from Hiiaka’s pursuit, their human disguise fell from
them and their real character as mo’o was evident.

“We’ve committed a great blunder,” said Pili-a-mo’o to his mate. “It looks
as if she meant to kill us. Let us apologize for our mistake and conciliate
her with fair words.”

Noho-a-mo’o agreed to this and, turning to Hiiaka, made this wheedling

speech:

Kupu maikai a’e la

Ka wahine o ka Lua;
Uä ia iho la e ka ua,
A kilinahe ka maka o ka lehua ma-uka.
Ma-uka oe e hele ai,
Ma ka hoauau wai.
E waiho ke ala no maua,
No na kupuna, e.

TRANSLATION
 She has grown a fine figure,
Our girl from the Fire-pit.
The plentiful rain has made bright
This bud of upland lehua.
Pray choose your road farther inland;
That way will offer good fordage—
This road leave to your ancient kin.

Hiiaka spared not, but pursued them to their cavernous rock-heaps in which
they thought to hide themselves, and, having seized them, rent them
asunder jaw from jaw. Thus did Hiiaka add one more to the score of her
victories in the extermination of the mo’o.

1 Wai-luku, water of destruction. ↑

2 Mo’o-puna, a grandchild, nephew or niece. ↑
3 Kahuli-huli. Kahuli, or its intensive, kahuli-huli, primarily means to upset, to
overturn. A secondary meaning, much employed in the argot of hula folk, is to hand over,
to pass this way; as when one guest at table might say to a neighbor, “hand me the salt (if
you please).” ↑
4 Nuku-o-ka-manu, literally, the beak of the bird; said to be a cape in the neighborhood
of Hilo. ↑
CHAPTER XIV
 HIIAKA MEETS MOTHER-GRUNDY
It was at this point of the journey that Hiiaka lost the attendance of her
sympathetic companion and faithful servant, Paú-o-pala’e. She was
persuaded to unite her fortunes with those of a man from Kohala named Pa-
ki’i; and we must leave unanswered the question, how she finally settled
with Pele this apparent desertion of the trust with which she had been
charged, that of acting as aide, kahu, to Hiiaka. Wahine-oma’o now remains
as the sole companion of Hiiaka in her future adventures.

On resuming the journey they came before long to the broad stream of
Honoli’i, which was swimming deep and, in the lack of other means of
crossing, they bundled their clothes, held them above their heads with one
hand and easily made the opposite shore by swimming with the aid of the
other hand.

At the sight of this performance, the ghost-god, Hina-hina-ku-i-ka-pali and

her companion, in a spirit of pure fault-finding and Mother-Grundyism,
exclaimed:

Popó ke kapa o ka wahine,

Au kohana wai, hoauau wai o Honoli’i.
E kapu oe, he mau alii;
He mau alii no, o Hina-hina-ku-i-ka-pali.

TRANSLATION

The women bundle their garments

And, naked, they swim the stream,
The water of Hono-li’i—
An action quite unseemly:
’Tis a slur on your noble rank,
I too am a chief, my name
Hina-hina-gem-of-the-cliff.
“For shame!” said Hiiaka. “These ghost-gods have been spying on our
nakedness, and now they make sport of us.”

A great fear came upon the ghosts, that the dread goddess would seize them
and pinch out their atomy spark of existence. In their terror, they flew home
and, perched on the shoulders of their mother, besought her to interpose in
their behalf and appease Hiiaka by a suitable offering of luau.

“There burns a fire,” said Wahine-oma’o, as they drew near the house.

“The fire of the ovens built by the ghosts,” Hiiaka answered. “They have
saved themselves from death.”

By the time they reached the house the luau was done to a turn and the
tables were spread. Wahine-oma’o made an oblation to the gods and then
ate of the viands. Hiiaka did not partake of the food.

Hiiaka now spent several days at Hono-kane, in Kohala, anxiously awaiting

the departure of some canoe, by which she might pass over to the island of
Maui. While thus absorbed, in a sentimental mood, looking one day across
the ocean at the misty outline of the distant land, she saw a man of
remarkable appearance strike out from one headland of the bay to swim to
the opposite point. Her admiration for his physical beauty and his daring
performance drew from her a song:

I i au, e au ma kai o ka hula ana.

Kai-ko’o a’e la lalo o ka pali;
Pího-pihó a’e; lele ke kai o Maka’u-kiu;
Au hopohopo ana i ka loa o Hono-kane-iki.
I kane oe a i wahine au.

TRANSLATION

My heart beats high at your venture—

To buffet the raging sea!
Wild heave the waves ’neath the cliff-wall.
To be whelmed by Ocean’s might—
 The ocean of Maka’u-kiu!
My heart forgets to beat at sight
Of your rashness, Hono-kane!
Would you were the man, the woman I!

Hono-kane heard, of course, the words that were uttered in his praise and,
being a man of chivalrous instincts as well as of honor, he invited Hiiaka
and Wahine-oma’o to enjoy the hospitalities of his home.

As they sat at a feast spread in her honor, Hiiaka, as was her wont, bowed
her head in prayer with closed eyes, and the others did likewise and when
they opened their eyes and looked, the portion that had been set before
Hiiaka was gone, spirited away.

In the evening it was announced that a canoe was to sail in the early
morning on a voyage to Maui, whereupon Hiiaka secured the promise of a
passage for herself and Wahine-oma’o.
CHAPTER XV
 THE VOYAGE TO MAUI
Hiiaka’s voyage across the Ale-nui-haha channel, considered merely as a
sea adventure, was a tame experience. There was no storm, no boistrous
weather, sea as calm as a mill-pond, nothing to fillip the imagination with a
sense of excitement or danger; yet it was far from being an agreeable
experience to the young woman who was now having her first hand-to-hand
tussle with the world.

They had spent the night at the house of one Pi’i-ke-a-nui. In the early
morning their host and a younger man—apparently his son—named Pi’i-ke-
a-iki, made ready their canoe to sail for Maui. Hiiaka, assuming that
passage would be granted both of them, in accordance with a promise made
the previous day, stood ready against the hour of departure. At the last
moment, the younger man, having assisted Wahine-oma’o to her seat in the
bow next to himself, called to his elder, “Pi’i-ke-a-nui, why don’t you show
your passenger to her seat, the one next you?”

“I won’t do it,” Pi’i-ke-a-nui answered groutily. “I find that the canoe will
be overloaded if we take passengers aboard and all our landlord’s freight
will get wet.”

The real reason for this volte-face on the part of the old sailor was that he
had made an unseemly proposition to Hiiaka the night before and she had
repelled him.

Wahine-oma’o, thereupon, left her seat and the canoe started without them.
It was not more than fairly underway, however, when a violent sea struck
the craft and swamped it, and all the loose freight was floating about in the
ocean.

“There, you see! We’d ’ave had better luck with the women aboard.” Such
was the exclamation of Pi’i-ke-a-iki.
It did not take long to convince the old man Pi’i-ke-a-nui, who was captain
of the canoe, that he had invited this disaster on himself, the agent of which,
as he rightly suspected, was none other than the distinguished-looking
young woman who now stood on the beach watching him in his
predicament with unperturbed countenance.

The two men floated their canoe, collected their baggage and came ashore.
When they had got the stuff dry and stowed in the waist of the craft, they
escorted the women aboard, seating Wahine-oma’o, as directed by the
captain, in the bow near Pi’i-ke-a-iki and Hiiaka in the after part, within
arm’s length of Pi’i-ke-a-nui, and they put to sea.

The canoe was a small affair, unprovided with that central platform, the
pola, that might serve as the cabin or quarter deck, on which the passengers
could stretch themselves for comfort. In her weariness, Hiiaka, with her
head toward the bow, reclined her body against the top rail of the canoe,
thus eking out the insufficiency of the narrow thwart that was her seat; and
she fell asleep, or rather, entered that border-land of Nod, in which the
central watchman has not yet given over control of the muscular system and
the ear still maintains its aerial reconnoissance.

The wind, meanwhile, as it caromed aft from the triangular sail of mat,
coquetted with her tropical apparel and made paú and kihei shake like
summer leaves.

The steersman, in whom that precious factor, a chivalrous regard for

woman, was even of less value than is common to the savage breast, in the
pursuit of a fixed purpose, began to direct amorous glances at the prostrate
form before him and to the neglect of his own proper duties. Presently he
left his steering and stole up to Hiiaka with privy paw outstretched. Hiiaka
roused from her half-dreamy state on the instant, and the man sprang back
and resumed his paddle.

Hiiaka, with the utmost coolness, expressed in song her remonstrance and
sarcastic rebuke for this exhibition of inhospitable rudeness:

A Hono-ma-ele au, i Hono-ka-lani,

 Ike au i ka ua o ko’u aina,
E halulu ana, me he kanaka la—
Ka ua ku a-o-a i kai.
Haki kaupaku o ka hale i ka ino, e!
Ino Ko’o-lau, ino Ko’o-lau, e-e!

TRANSLATION

With pillowed neck I lay, face to heaven:

The rain, I found, beat on my bed;
Came a tremor, like tread of a man—
The slap of a rain-squall at sea;
Within, the roof-tree broken down,
My house exposed to the storm,
My garden of herbs laid waste!

The young man added his protest: “Yes, his whole conduct is, indeed,
shameful, scandalous. He hasn’t the decency to wait till he gets ashore.”

In the midst of this unpleasantness it was a comfort to hear the strong

cheerful voice of her former companion Paú-o-pala’e calling to her across
the stretch of waters. It will be remembered that their roads had parted
company sometime before Hiiaka had left the big island. The separation had
made no change, however, in their mutual affection:

O hele ana oe, e ka noe, e ka awa,

E na ki a Wahine-kapu,
E ka ua lele a’e maluna
O Ka-la-hiki-ola, la:
O hele ana, e!

TRANSLATION

Like a cloud you fleet by,

On the wings of the storm—
Vision of womanly tabu—
Of the rain-clouds that sweep
 O’er the Hill-of-good-luck:
May you speed on your way!

Hiiaka replied to her kahu’s mele in these words:

A noho ana,
E na hoaiku,
E na hoa haele,
I uka o Ka-li’u-la,
I Moe-awakea.

TRANSLATION

Kinsmen, allies, travel-mates,

You rest in upland Ka-li’u;
There taste you midday repose.

Perhaps it was that Hiiaka failed to manifest in her carriage and department
the dignity and tabu that hedges in an alii or an akua; perhaps the rough
hearted Pi’i-ke-a-nui, sailor-fashion, deemed himself outside the realm of
honor which rules on land. However that might be, as Hiiaka lay decently
covered against the cold wind that drew down the flank of Hale-a-ka-la, this
rude fellow, regardless of every punctilio, stole up to Hiiaka and repeated
his former attempt. Hiiaka caught his hand in mid air and administered this
rebuke:

O Ka-uwiki, mauna ki’eki’e,

Huki a’e la a pa i ka lani:
He po’o-hiwi no kai halulu;
Au ana Moku-hano i ke kai—
He maka no Hana,
O maka kilo i’a.
O kou maka kunou, a,
Ua hopu-hia.

TRANSLATION
 Ka-uwiki, famous in story,
While buffeting ocean’s blows,
Aspires to commerce with heaven.
Moku-hano’s palms, that float
Like a boat in the water,
Are watchful eyes to Hana,
Alert for the passing school:
Your wanton vagrant eye
Is caught in the very act.

The canoe grated on the shingly beach. The two young women, rejoiced to
be free at last from the enforced proximity of ship-board, sprang ashore and
with speedy steps put a distance between themselves and the canoe-house.
“That’s right,” called out the steersman. “Make haste to find a bath. We’ll
join you in a short time.”
CHAPTER XVI
KAPO-ULA-KINA’U, A RELATIVE OF HIIAKA—THE
MAIMED GIRL MANA-MANA-IA-KALU-EA
The canoe-men, having used their utmost expedition in landing the freight
and hauling up the canoe and getting it under cover, hastened to meet the
two women at the rendezvous they had suggested. But they were nowhere
to be found. They had disappeared as completely as though the earth had
swallowed them up. When Pi’i-ke-a-nui asked the people of the village as
to the whereabouts of the two young women who had just now landed as
passengers from the canoe, they one and all denied having set eyes upon
them.

Hiiaka had planned a visit with her sister Kapo; but, on reaching Wailuku,
the house was empty; Kapo and her husband Pua-nui had but just started to
make a ceremonious call on Ole-pau, a famous chief of the district. The
receding figure of Kapo was already hazy in the distance, so that it seemed
more than doubtful if the words of Hiiaka’s message reached the ears for
which they were intended:

He ahui hala1 ko Kapo-ula-kina’u,2

Ko ka pili kaumaha;
I ka pili a hala, la, ha-la!
Hala olua, aohe makamaka o ka hale
E kipa aku ai la ho’i i ko hale,
I kou hale, e-e!

TRANSLATION

The clustered hala is Kapo’s shield,

An omen portending disaster.
The traveler came in your absence;
Both of you gone, no one at home—
No lodge for the traveler within,
 No hospitality within!

Here is another version of this mele by Hiiaka (furnished by Pelei-oholani).

As the version previously given is confessedly imperfect, in part
conjectural, there having been several hiatuses in the text, I think it well to
give an authorized version, though very different:

He ahui hala na ka makani:3

Hala ka ua,4 noho i na pali, e—
I ka pali aku i Pua-lehei,5 e.
Loli iho la, pulu elo i ka ua, e.
Aohe makamaka e kipa aku ai
I kou hale, e;
E noho ana i ke kai o Kapeku;
E hoolono i ka uwalo, e!

TRANSLATION

A hala bunch, snatched by the wind

That blows from the medicine man,
Pushing the rain to Pua-lehei:
Cold is the traveler and soaking wet,
No friend to give welcome and cheer;
House empty—gone to the seashore;
No one to heed my entreaty.

As Hiiaka passed along the cliff that overlooks the wave-swept beach at
Hono-lua, a pitiful sight met her eye, the figure of a woman crippled from
birth—without hands. Yet, in spite of her maimed condition, the brave spirit
busied herself gathering shell-fish; and when a tumbling wave rolled across
the beach she made herself a partner in its sport and gleefully retreated,
skipping and dancing to the words of a song:

Aloha wale ka i’a lamalama o ku’u aina, la,

Ka i’a kahiko pu no me ka wahine.
Lilo ke hoa, ko’eko’e ka po;
 Akahi kona la o aloha mai, e-e!
Aloha Kona, ku’u aina i ka pohu, e-e!

TRANSLATION

How dear the torch-caught fish of my home-land,

The fish embraced by the women folk!
Gone one’s companion, chill grows the night:
Love cheered for a day, then flew away.—
Oh Kona, thou land of peace and of calm!

Search for the hidden meaning of this oli has brought out a marvellous
diversity of opinion. The chief difficulty lies in the interpretation of the
second verse: Ka i’a kahiko pu no me ka wahine, and centers in the
expression kahiko pu. One able critic finds in it an allusion to the
coöperation of women with the men in the work of fishing. Kahiko is a
word of dignity meaning finely apparelled. The addition of the preposition
pu amplifies it and gives it almost the meaning of wrapped together. It
seems probable also that the word i’a, literally fish, is to be taken in an
esoteric sense as a euphemism for man. Putting this interpretation upon it,
the meaning of the expression kahiko pu becomes clear as being wrapped
together, as in the sexual embrace.

Wahine-oma’o was greatly fascinated by the pathos and romance of the

situation and declared she would like to have her for an aikane, an intimate
friend.

Hiiaka replied, “Maimed folk seem to be very numerous in these parts.”

The maimed girl kept up her fishing, her light-hearted dancing and singing:

Ua ino Hono-kohau; he Ulu-au nui ka makani;

Ke ha’iha’i la i ka lau o ka awa.
La’i pono ai ke kai o Hono-lua,
E hele ka wahine i ke kapa kahakai,
Ku’i-ku’i ana i ka opihi,
Wa’u-wa’u ana i kana limu,
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and

personal growth!

ebooknice.com