Full Blog: The Design of Everyday Things

Title:
The Design of Everyday Things

Reference Information

Title: Design of Everyday Things

Author: Donald Norman

Summary:

This book is about how devices are designed, and how they should be designed.  Norman discusses how poorly designed things are today, and some key points to incorporate when creating a well designed product.  One of them is to keep things simple.  The more complex something is, the harder it is to learn it, and the less universal it is.  What may be obvious to some users, is not even though of by other users.  Another key idea is to provide feedback to the users.  If there is no feedback, then the user doesn't know if what they are doing is correct or not.  These ideas are included with others like keeping controls visible to produce the concept of a well designed product.  The designer needs to keep in mind that all users are different when designing a product as well.

Discussion:

Towards the beginning of the book, I was interested, but I soon felt like i was reading the same thing over and over.  I usually don't worry about the end design when I am creating new software, but I think that this book has shown me some new ideas.  Most importantly that I need to think more about the end user rather than just developing code.

Book Reading #21: The Design of Everyday Things

Title:
User-Centered Design

Summary:
This chapter is about how to design a product for the user.  One of the key principles is to keep the design simple so the user can understand.  Also, let them keep some control, don't automate everything.  Finally, design for errors.  One way to do this is to standardize things.

Discussion:
Well, this can be one of the hardest things to do.  Especially making everything simple, and designing for errors.  I read a quote online stating that a Computer Programmer is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.  I think that this quote applies to the design problems of errors.  Interestingly enough, I actually saw someone go the wrong way down a one-way street, which made me realize that if there is an error that can be made, there is a user who will make it.

Book Reading #18: The Design of Everyday Things

Title: The Design Challenge

Summary:
This chapter is about the design of products, and how the designs evolve.  This happens between the old model and the next model.  One of the challenges is that the next model is already in the design process before the prior model is even released.  The chapter discusses the evolution of design of the typewriter and keyboard.  Also the chapter discusses how designers think of themselves as typical users even though they are not.

Discussion:
The design process and evolution is a very important one.  A product may be amazing, but if it is not designed in a way that average people can use it, then it will not be successful.  The different keyboard layouts were interesting.  I thought typing was difficult on a qwerty keyboard, but when I saw the Dvorak keyboard, I was astonished.

Book Reading #14: The Design of Everyday Things

Title:
Chapter 5: To Err is Human

Summary:
This chapter is about the different types of errors that a user can make when using a device.  There are 2 categories: a slip and a mistake.  Slips are errors that are caused from automatic behavior, and are often attributed to a lack of attention.  Mistakes are caused by cautious deliberation.  We don't know what to do exactly, so we jump to conclusions that can be incorrect.  The rest of the chapter discusses the different types of slips and mistakes, how they can be detected, and avoided.

Discussion:
Errors are everywhere.  I think that the most common are slips, because I feel that I have made more of them than mistakes, but I may be wrong.  I could just be noticing slips because when I make mistakes, I attribute them to just learning something.

Book Reading #8: The Design of Everyday Things

Title:
Chapter 3: Knowledge in the Head and in the World

Summary:
This chapter is about the difference of knowing something and having your brain fill in the blanks.  For example, there was a study done on professional typists. They were given capital letters and asked to place them in the appropriate positions on a keyboard.  interestingly, many of them could not place them in the proper positions.  This shows how that a lot of knowledge is not completely known, people use their surroundings to fill in the gaps.

Discussion:
I liked this chapter.  I thought that the fact the typists were not able to place the characters in the right positions was funny. I also thought the different pennies was interesting.  When I looked at them, I was unable to tell which one was the real one.  I wonder how many Americans would be able to identify the correct penny.

Book Reading #5: The Design of Everyday Things

Title:
Chapter 2: The Psychology of Everyday Actions

Summary:
This chapter is about how users perceive the causes of certain actions and where the blame for problems is.  Many users think that if something goes wrong with a device, then they messed something up, and the blame is only theirs.  However, this is not true.  Often the design of the device does not match up to the mental model of most users, which makes certain actions confusing for them.

Discussion:
This chapter reminds me of when people don't know how to use programs on their computer.  Often it is something that is obvious when known how to do it, but people blame themselves for not knowing how to do it. I also thought it was interesting the differences of naive versus real physics that he mentioned.

Book Reading #29: Opening Skinner's Box

Title:
Chapter 8: Lost in the Mall

Summary:
This chapter discusses Elizabeth Loftus and her experiments with memory.  Her experiments are about how easy it is to plant a suggested memory into someones head, and have that form into a believed memory for that person.  Her one of her initial experiments consisted of 24 students who went home and implanted false memories in their sibling that they had been lost in a mall when they were younger.  When the siblings came into the lab later, 25 percent of them elaborated in detail of the time that they got lost in the mall, but never actually happened.

Discussion:
I thought that this was an interesting chapter.  As I read it, I thought about some of my memories, and realized that I had memories of things only after I heard the story fomr my family.  I feel bad for Loftus for all of the anger that was focused on her.  Unfortunately, it seems that often the important research and ideas get the most ridicule.