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design-of-everyday-things

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Book - The design of everyday things

Introduction

  • “The design of everyday things” is a book by Don Norman, published in 1988, critiques the design of everyday things and objects. It focuses on the importance of how good design can make people lives easy.
  • It also stresses upon how poor design can create frustrations and confusions and that good design should be intuitive and easy to use.
  • Author shares several design principles and respective examples in depth that brought from the real world.

Author

  • Now a bit about the author.
  • Don Norman is a prominent researcher, writer, and a consultant in the field of human-centered design and user experience.
  • His book “The design of everyday things” has become classic in the field of design and read by designers, engineers , students etc.
  • He has written other books like “Emotional Design: Why we love or hate everyday things” and “Living with complexity”.
  • Book has : pages

Theme

  • The theme of the book is mainly on design principles, user focused design and effects of good and poor design in surroundings.

Principles discussed

  1. Understanding the needs of the user
  2. affordances: products should clearly indicate how they can be used and what all is possible
    1. give some impromptu examples
  3. simplicity
  4. consistency: the should be consistency across different products, interfaces and systems. This helps user to understand and navigate easily.
  5. feedback
  6. mapping : relationships between controls and the effects should be clear and intuitive
  7. Constraints: Products should constrain the actions of users in appropriate ways, making it harder for them to make mistakes
  8. Error recovery: Products should provide clear and straightforward methods for users to recover from mistakes and continue using the product effectively.

Examples

  1. Doors. Push and pull doors
  2. Doors. Fire exit doors
  3. Light switches
  4. Computer interfaces
    1. Lot of system related things on the front page
    2. have to remember complex commands
    3. not giving clear feedback
    4. give example of government websites
  5. Your example of plane
    1. It is about British European Airways flight 548
    2. There were controls for droops and flaps.
      1. droops are aerodynamic surfaces that help increase the lift during take off
    3. Those were same looking controls and anyone can get confused between them.
    4. Third pilot by mistake changes the flaps liver instead of droops
    5. In the end plane crashes.
    6. Example of your water bottle accessibility

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