Design of Everyday Things -- Norman (Preface and Chapter 1)

Article here.

by Donald A. Norman is a cognitive scientist whose studies focused on how items are designed. Specifically, he investigated how many "human errors" were actually caused by poor design choices made when items were created, such as doors, water faucets, or nuclear plant control rooms.

His "Design of Everyday Things" covers three main topics:

1. It's not your fault -- when people have trouble with something, it's a design fault, not theirs

2. Design principles -- people need conceptual models of how things work, feedback, constraints, and affordances (appropriate actions perceptible, inappropriate are invisible)

3. Power of observation -- people must observe, learn, critique designs

Norman notes that all human-centered design requires all considerations be addressed from the very beginning, which suggests that users must be included in the design process from start to finish. This is where the problems typically begin. Most see it as expensive and cumbersome to include users so early in the development process. Moreover, it probably doesn't make much sense to companies from a cost-benefit perspective.

For example, the Huatong Sun article "The triumph of users: Achieving cultural usability goals with user localization" notes that MMS blew up despite hard-to-use and poorly designed cell phone technology. In this case, what is the incentive for cell phone companies to include users throughout the development process if users are going to use it regardless of poor design?

Moving on...

I'm decent at Photoshop -- good enough that I can "make pretty" most design items on my company's website by myself. However, we recently launched a Christmas card online ordering system and needed a splash page for the online store. Sure, I could probably take the cards and making something pretty. But there are a few different types of cards...with a few different options...and different prices on each...and we need to let users know which items they can click to get where they need to go...all on 800x600.

But this wasn't a matter of space. It was a matter of organization and ensuring visitors can go where they need to go without even thinking about it. This wasn't designing for aesthetics (which a lot of people can do...if I can do it) but designing for effectiveness. This was real design.

Norman might pat me on the back, but not before he yelled at me to hand the splash page off to a real designer.

I got a little tripped up on affordances and constraints. Norman says that affordances aren’t only positive, nor are constraints only negative. Instead Norman says that affordances only benefit if they’re taken advantage of, which means that “the user knows what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or instruction is required.” Constraints, on the other hand, aren’t always negative; just because an object can’t do something doesn’t mean it should.

I also wondered how Norman would view shortcut keys through the lens of his "mapping" concept. If with "no visible relationship between the buttons and the possible actions,” there is “no discernible relationship between the actions and the end result” what does that say for technology a little more advanced than coffee cups and doors?