Thursday, September 20, 2012

Assignment #2: The Design of Everyday Things

The Design of Everyday Things

By: Donald Norman

I thought this book overall was very interesting. Some people complain about how dated this book is since it came out in 1988, but I think its amazing to see him wish for some things such as phones that act like computers appear today. It also adds some nostalgic charm like when he tells the reader how to put a NES cartridge in the system. In terms of the content, this book gave me new perspectives. I had never critically evaluated everyday designs as much as this book did. I will never look at a refrigerator or faucet the same again. I knew many of the things he was talking about in the book but I never gave them concrete names. For instance, the way he describes short term memory vs long term memory and all of the different ways we can recall memories.

Some of the things that I loved about the book were the different views he gave me on some ideas. I've heard the term taught helplessness but I never quite thought it afflicted many people. I realized that this probably affects everyone at college especially on our message boards when we discuss homework. Other students in the class do not want to post on these boards because they are afraid of looking stupid to their peers. In reality, each and every one of us needs to seek help and not just think we cannot do a particular subject such as math.

My favorite chapter was the one where he talked about how to simplify design and not get too aesthetic or too technical. This means that we should find a nice balance for our ideas to reach the biggest market of customer possible. He also mentioned that the programmers should not be the U.I. designers. This makes sense to me as even though the programmer knows all of the functions behind their code, they may not know how to best arrange them. For instance, the designers of Microsoft Excel know where everything is, so they might put functions in sub menus that they think are optimal but in reality, the common man would have no chance of finding it.

In conclusion, The Design of Everyday Things was a good book. Even despite being horrendously dated, most if not all of his ideas hold up in this day and age. The examples he gives for bad designs in our everyday life has made me do a double-take on every object I come across to make sure its a good design. In the future, I hope that I can incorporate some of the fundamental ideas that Donald Norman wrote about in all of my future designs.

7 comments:

  1. Great writing and thought out responses.

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  2. Your blog is the best that I’ve read so far! =) First of all you actually elaborated more deeply on your reaction to the book (which a surprising number of people really didn’t). Your breakdown of each good/bad design using the terminology of the book (conceptual image, mapping, feedback, etc.) was perfect. It is also refreshing to hear thoughtful feedback on the book as opposed to other more strongly opinionated reviews that I’ve read. Great job!

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  3. You blog is really great I like the way of how you separated your opinions.

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  4. Another excellent post! Your reactions to the book were a pleasure to read and your entire blog is structured very well. If I may add one suggestion though, the background of the chair and wall makes reading the white text very difficult. (Leave design to the designers...your words not mine :) )

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  5. Good sir! This was a most excellent response to the book. Congratulations

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  6. Excellent post of everything! You reactions are profound and it seems that the book really change your mind towards everyday things. Your descriptions to good design and bad design are great and in details. It is glad to see that you use the terminology in the book to evaluate each design. I like your example of Smoothie King Blender Bottle and Snark Clip-on Chromatic Guitar Tuner. This guitar tuner seems easy to use and has really good visual feedback.

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  7. And I like the tone of your blog design:D

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