| Visually, it may seem confusing, but tactilely, it's intuitive: Move your hand from the bottom-left corner to the top-right. That diagonal motion is shifting from D-N-R-P, what most people will use. Now pretend you're driving in the mountains and you're on a long descent. Instead of riding your brakes, you want to use the transmission to limit your speed. You're in 4th gear (D), so just bump your lever down to third (3). It's a simple vertical motion. Now you're in 3rd gear, but forgot and think you're still in 4th (D), and attempt to downshift once more. Fortunately, you won't accidentally drop the car into second gear. To get into second gear, you need a downward and horizontal motion. It requires intention to move from 3rd to 2nd gear. And once you're in the rarely used 2nd gear, to switch between second (2) and first (L) is a horizontal motion. So it makes sense once a person feels it out and actually drives their car. Designers with a background limited to just visual aesthetics need to learn this. Run through your interfaces; interact with them under less-than-ideal conditions. **tl;dr**
P-R-N-D: diagonal motion
D-3: vertical motion
2-L: horizontal motion
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