Book Reading #8 - Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 3


Reference Info:
Design of Everyday Things
Donald Norman
 

Summary:
This chapter talks about design of technologies that require human memory of information and world information. Norman sees the use of the object should be evident once a person applies knowledge and world information. Such as the example with the car, without world information telling him about the need to be put in reverse, all his knowledge and memory served no use. The user should not be an expert or precise, but collaborate with world and cultural information. An example of well formed world information is the keyboard which displays the keys as lettered squares, making it easy for anyone to use, given their knowledge of sentence and word structure. The book describes 2 types of knowledge, of/how. One is factual knowledge with the other is procedural. Precision is not needed, just the knowledge of how it is used, such as the penny example. Adding restraints will help guide the memory to a desired choice as given by the example of the poems. It is also key to have knowledge by memory. If you have all the world information  but are not able to put it together by the knowledge possessed because of memory, then it is no use. Another method for excellent designs would be to add a reminder mechanism for using technology such as reminding a user of an oven which coil corresponds to what nob.


Discussion:
I  like how Norman wants to take some of the pressure off of us by introducing the thought of world information. It is good to know that it is also the technology's responsibility to remind me or help me figure it out. I am glad that the technology we have today isn't based on memorization or precision. It takes two after all.