Title - Design of Everyday Things
Author - Donald Norman
Chapter 1
Summary
In the first chapter, Donald Norman discusses the various of how everyday tools and things are designed. He mentions visibility, constraints, conceptual model, and mappings. All of these, according to Mr. Norman are very important to the design of things used in everyday life. He explains that any person, should be able to operate all machinery that will be used on a day-to-day basis. Anybody from a high school drop out to a doctorate in engineering should know how things work. The visibility aspect is saying that there should be symbols and icons that are easily distinguishable letting everybody know how these things work. The conceptual model is basically a person's mental model of how a particular device should work. Donald Norman goes on to explain different examples of good design versus some pretty bad designs.
Discussion
I really enjoyed reading this article by Donald Norman. He did a very good job of using various pictures to let the reader know what was going on. Without some of these, certain readers may have had a harder time understanding. Mr. Norman made it clear that the design of most things is usually, if not always a very hard task. By explaining what a good design is vs a bad one, Norman keeps the reader thinking on how the bad designs could be ultimately improved.
Here is an interesting photo of a man trying to use a very poorly design device.
Chapter2
Summary
In this chapter the author discusses the idea of people and them trying to explain whats wrong with things. When things are poorly designed or do not fit a mental model of how a person feels something should work, then people naturally want to blame somebody. They may have no idea as to why something is incorrect or who deals with these things. Also, the author discusses the 7 stages of "action", These are: Forming Goals, Forming Intention, Specifying Action, Executing Action, Perceiving State of World, Interpreting State of the world, evaluating the outcome.
Discussion
This chapter was very interesting for with the idea of everybody trying to fix problems that they have no idea what the true errors are. After reading this I started thinking about how I analyze things and it is very apparent for me, that I do these kinds of things sometimes. Sometimes I feel that some problems are simple and that I could fix them easily.
Chapter 3
Summary
This chapter is center around user capabilities after a system has been developed. Norman the the difference in giving the user instructions every time or allowing the user to try and remember how to use the system. He talks about how long a user can remember instructions.
Discussion
I enjoyed Normans discussions on memory and its cognitive approach. I agree that a "simple" product can be extremely complicated if a user is expected to figure out how to use it on their own.
Chapter 4
Summary
In this chapter Norman discusses the idea of users knowing what and how to do things. He mostly discusses doors and switched and their extreme complexity for simple objects. He explains that sounds should also be brought into the equation in giving users a sense of direction.
Discussion
This chapter was extremely interesting to me in the aspect of experience. There are several cases, for example the VCR, when I had a hard time understanding what was going on. The more unlabeled unmarked buttons there are the more opportunity for pressing an incorrect one there is. Also, the idea behind using sounds for assurance of the button/switch being used correctly is very intriguing to me.
Chapter 5
Summary
The idea behind this chapter was to look at the ability of Humans to overcome small errors in speech and other aspects of life. Norman goes into extreme detail of the differences between slips and mistakes. Basically humans make slips all the time in dealing with tasks they do repeatedly. Where as with mistakes, this is common in new tasks when not really understanding what to do and somebody will go to the wrong place or not wear correct attire.
Discussion
I really enjoyed reading this chapter by Norman. I enjoyed hearing about the categories of different mistakes we make on a day to day basis. When he dug into the the cognitive abilities of the brain to remember and make decisions was quite fascinating. Also, the way the brain structures tasks to be completing is also very interesting to me.
Chapter 6
Summary
This chapter was focused on the evolutionary design of products. For example, the author focuses on the Typewriter's evolution for a good part of the chapter. The first keyboards had multiple layouts for upper case vs lower case. It took a few different models before this was finally reduced by adding the shift key. Norman also explains that a good balance must be found between usability, cost, and other limitations.
Discussion
My favorite part of this chapter was the evolutionary design of the typewriter. I found it really interesting that the positioning of the keys had to manipulated because of the jams that would occur between the buttons pressed relatively close. Also,
Chapter 7
Summary
As the title would convey, this chapter was centered around designing products around the user. The author begins by discussing the 3 conceptual models: design models, user's model, and system image. One of the main ideas of this chapter is for the designers to create a product that is easy for users to understand how it works with very little help.
Discussion
Chapter 3
Summary
This chapter is center around user capabilities after a system has been developed. Norman the the difference in giving the user instructions every time or allowing the user to try and remember how to use the system. He talks about how long a user can remember instructions.
Discussion
I enjoyed Normans discussions on memory and its cognitive approach. I agree that a "simple" product can be extremely complicated if a user is expected to figure out how to use it on their own.
Chapter 4
Summary
In this chapter Norman discusses the idea of users knowing what and how to do things. He mostly discusses doors and switched and their extreme complexity for simple objects. He explains that sounds should also be brought into the equation in giving users a sense of direction.
Discussion
This chapter was extremely interesting to me in the aspect of experience. There are several cases, for example the VCR, when I had a hard time understanding what was going on. The more unlabeled unmarked buttons there are the more opportunity for pressing an incorrect one there is. Also, the idea behind using sounds for assurance of the button/switch being used correctly is very intriguing to me.
Chapter 5
Summary
The idea behind this chapter was to look at the ability of Humans to overcome small errors in speech and other aspects of life. Norman goes into extreme detail of the differences between slips and mistakes. Basically humans make slips all the time in dealing with tasks they do repeatedly. Where as with mistakes, this is common in new tasks when not really understanding what to do and somebody will go to the wrong place or not wear correct attire.
Discussion
I really enjoyed reading this chapter by Norman. I enjoyed hearing about the categories of different mistakes we make on a day to day basis. When he dug into the the cognitive abilities of the brain to remember and make decisions was quite fascinating. Also, the way the brain structures tasks to be completing is also very interesting to me.
Chapter 6
Summary
This chapter was focused on the evolutionary design of products. For example, the author focuses on the Typewriter's evolution for a good part of the chapter. The first keyboards had multiple layouts for upper case vs lower case. It took a few different models before this was finally reduced by adding the shift key. Norman also explains that a good balance must be found between usability, cost, and other limitations.
Discussion
My favorite part of this chapter was the evolutionary design of the typewriter. I found it really interesting that the positioning of the keys had to manipulated because of the jams that would occur between the buttons pressed relatively close. Also,
Chapter 7
Summary
As the title would convey, this chapter was centered around designing products around the user. The author begins by discussing the 3 conceptual models: design models, user's model, and system image. One of the main ideas of this chapter is for the designers to create a product that is easy for users to understand how it works with very little help.
Discussion
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