The Design of Everyday Things - Microblog

Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

Summary

The author explains how sometimes the design of products (from simple things to doors, telephones, and vehicles) can sometimes be misleading and inaccurate in placement (affordance). Even things that you would think are intuitive to some of the smartest people can be frustrating to try and understand. He discussed about the principles of understandability and usability and how it that consists of a good conceptual model, making things visible, proper mapping, and feedback. For example a car can be a very good product that is pretty intuitive once after being familiarized with the functions. The reason this is the case is because it has the controls visible and they are in the proper place that they correlate with their specific function. However, some telephones and multifunction alarm clocks are not as successful, because they are sometimes mislabeled and have a lot of functions, possibly in the wrong locations. With the proper placement and effort in a design product causes the complexity and difficulty levels to decrease.

Discussion

I couldn't help but laugh at how much I could identify with the introduction of this novel. I found myself thinking, "Ah, I'm not the only one that feels this way some...most... of the time. haha It's very true that the design of things can make them very frustrating and complicated devices to use. If only the designers were more conscientious of the users and that they may not view the use of the device the same way they do, I think it would save many headaches and probably help the success of some products.

Chapter 2: The Psychology of Everyday Actions

Summary

In comparison with the last chapter this chapter focuses on our actions and how we respond to them. The author points out that we are often blame ourselves for the error before considering the designer's design. He goes on to explain how naive physics can sometimes influence the way we answer different scenarios. The author explains that people are described as explanatory creatures and thus our actions often are the stem the explanation of how something works. Thus in turn, explains how people can often blame the wrong cause because we assume that if one action happens it leads to a certain result and that the two are related. This often leads to what the author calls learned helplessness or taught helplessness in explaining different circumstances or situations. The author goes on to explain the seven stages of action: forming the goal, forming the intention, specifying an action, executing the action, perceiving the state of the world, interpreting the state of the world and evaluating the outcome. The chapter closes by discussing the seven stages of action as design aids which emphases visibility, a good conceptual model, good mapping and feedback.

Discussion

In reading this chapter it reminded me something that often drives how I evaluate a product or design an interface. The seven stages of action are something that I found very useful in evaluating the usability of a product. I was also reminded of how important user testing is when designing a product; because often what seems intuitive to one person may not be intuitive to another person.

Chapter 3: Knowledge in the Head and in the World

Summary

This chapter focuses on precise behavior emerge from knowledge for four reasons: Information is in the world, great precision, natural constraints are present, cultural constraints are present. The first point they expand on is that if information is in the world we are less likely to learn it, for example with details of a coin. This also links to the point that great precision is not required, but if it is very similar to another object then it could lead to problems, such as the British pound and five-pence piece. The power of constraints can narrow what you have to think about, figuring out a word vs. narrowing it to words that rhyme and context. Although this is a known concept,yet it is something that we've been able to do differently when it comes to remembering a series of important numbers (such as identification, telephone numbers) because it meets a set of standards that human minds do well remembering. A lot of remembering different things links back to reminder cues we're given (for example placement, written reminders of events). As with all products there are various trade-offs that people will often compromise based on: retrievability, learning, efficiency of use, ease of first use and aesthetics.

Discussion

This explains a lot of why people may buy products and yet when others use it they are so confused or struggle to use it. It also reminded me of the small factors that go into why we have certain systems the way we do today, such as our currency. I realized this on my most recent trip to Estonia, because they just changed to the Euro from the Kroon.

Chapter 4: Knowing What to Do

Summary

Being unfamiliar with objects, such as the VCR can make them difficult to understand.Some of the reasons that designs may be confusing is that there are too many possibilities so it makes it difficult to understand what the path to follow to perform an action. An important set of signals is from affordances which convey the possible actions and constraints. Restraints can be be either physical (for example parts that fit in one place), semantic constraints (context of the situation) and cultural constraints (certain objects are universal in meaning, such as certain colors), or logical constraints (natural mapping and completeness of an object). The author goes on to explain that sometimes doors can be confusing because of the designs that go outside the constraints that should be followed. Switches can also be just as confusing to users because it may be hard to see what functions what object; or how the switches are arranged for the operation of a particular set of objects. The chapter closes with the importance of visibility and feedback and how sound can also be used for visibility.

Discussion

I've always found some devices rather confusing. I hadn't really given much thought to how to better the success of using such controls. I enjoyed learning about what to consider in order for controls to be more understandable to users. I especially like the layout for the light switches. I've seen how confusing that can be in a lot of the classroom's light switches (some of them are still confusing after they're fully or partially labeled... especially in the dark!).

Chapter 5: To Err is Human

Summary

Errors come in the forms of slips and mistakes. Slips result from automatic behavior, when subconscious actions that are intended to satisfy our goals get out of route. Slips show up in skilled behaviors and result from lack of attention. There are six types of slips: capture errors (ex. cards), description errors (common possibilities), data-driven errors (errors due to arrival of sensor data), associative activation errors (internal thoughts and associations), loss-of-activation errors (forgetting what needs to be done), mode errors (actions mean different things in different modes). Detecting slips can be difficult because sometimes feedback doesn't go with the person's focus of the process and the process of an action consist of levels (which correction could also be done on the wrong level). Two kinds of design lessons can be drawn from slips: prevention of slips and detection when one occurs. Mistakes result from choice of inappropriate goals are relied upon remembered experiences. Some models of thought are based on experiences that are closely related or they are like a file cabinet that has lots of cross references to other areas of thoughts. This theory is based on three beliefs: logic and order to individual structures, human memory is associative and much of our power comes from deductive thoughts. The connectionist approach is also discussed which is related to a neural nets approach. The way that it's applied in the thought process is that experiences link together, one on top of the other which averages out. The simplicity lies in the structure of the tasks, which are either narrow or shallow structures. The concept of conscious and subconscious behavior, where subconscious are regular and structured. Whereas conscious thought is slow and labored. Mistakes often occur because it is a misinterpretation of a situation, sometimes from things such as social pressure. Some things to remember in designing to avoid error are: understand the cause of errors and design to minimize them; two, make it possible to reverse actions; three, make errors easy to discover and to correct; lastly, think of actions as an approximation of what is the desired goal. In order to deal with errors force functions can be used as a form of physical constraint at one stage to prevent the next one from occurring. The chapter closes with the philosophy of design stating: put the required knowledge in the world, use the power of natural and artificial constraints and narrow the gulfs of execution and evaluation.

Discussion

I found this chapter to have some insight to errors that I didn't necessarily categorize or understand ways of preventing them. I think it's very important to take these principles into the thought of design. As we saw various examples some of them have drastic results and could be very damaging. As computer scientist we are responsible for the designs we create and we should be following a standard that is going to produce the most successful product for the users who use it.

Chapter 6: The Design Challenge

Summary

The chapter opens up discussing the unique layout of a typewriter. It has it's layout designed that way originally in order to minimize jamming of the keys. It also presents the different types of keyboards that have been distributed and experimented with. It then transitions to why designs go astray. The first reason it mentions is to put aesthetics first. The second reason mentioned is designers are typically not users; therefore, it may not be viewed from the same perspective as new individuals see it. Finally the designed product may not be use by the clients that ask for them. Designing can be complex, yet designing can be tailored to a special group. The chapter transitions to the problem with focus and how selective attention leads to tunnel vision. The example the author used is faucet designs. Returning to designer problems the author mentions creeping featurism and worshipping of false images. Some of the things that the mention that result in doing them wrong are: making things invisible, be arbitrary, be inconsistent, making operations unintelligible, be impolite, making operations dangerous.

Discussion

I thought this was an interesting chapter and it took a unique perspective on areas that I hadn't seen before. I think the points at the end of the chapter are important to remember when designing something.