The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman

Comments

Kerry

Nate Brown

Summary

The Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman, is a book focused on good design. In this book, he takes all the examples of bad design in the world, breaks apart the situation into each component that went wrong, and explains how to fix the object, and how to design everyday objects that are easier to use. He adopts a user-centric view of the world, and stresses that designers put themselves in the shoes of the user and make design choices based on what would help them the most. Below are the major points that I thought were the most important design principles he discussed:

• Visibility: Make all aspects of the device visible and easy to see. The user can look at the device and know all parts of it instantly.
• Good Mappings: The visible parts of the objects easily map to their purpose and the way they can be used. For example, light switches are placed in close proximity to the light, or moving a handle forward moves the robot forward as well.
• Feedback: After a user does an action with the device, there is immediate feedback about the result of the action so they know if their action was successful or not.
• No Arbitrary Actions: Make it obvious why the user has to do an action; if they do not understand why they are doing to action, then it seems arbitrary and is extremely hard to remember.
• Use Affordances and Constraints: Objects have affordances in their design which easily and naturally explain how they should be used. For example, a button "affords" to be pushed. Constraints in design restrict the ways the device should be used. For example, if the battery is not supposed to be taken out, you should design the device so that those actions are constrained and not possible.
• Knowledge in the World: Put information about the device in the world, and do not require the user to memorize all aspects of the device to be able to use it.
• Reversible Actions: Any action that may harm the device or allow the user to delete or lose all of their work or data should be reversible, or there should be considerable warning before the user can complete the dangerous operation.
• Design for Error: Think like you are the user, and take precautions in the design to eliminate errors or allow for them to be easily reversed.

In all, the main point that Norman was trying to get across is that a device with good design needs no explanation or instruction manual. The was the device is supposed to be used should be completely apparent from exploration and even from just looking at the device. He urged designers to think like the user and put their needs first and not focus completely on aesthetics and winning design awards.

Discussion

Reading the beginning of this book, I was immediately drawn in to the insightful comments about how these everyday objects that we use all the time are designed poorly. It opened my eyes, and I started to realize how much time I spent misusing devices and dealing with the bad design, when I should have been completing tasks using the device. I agree with all of Norman's points, the most important being constant feedback about the results of your actions. But, I disagreed in his criticism of designers and the design process in general. Designing a product that is efficient, cheap, easy to use, nice-looking, and marketable is an extremely hard process. While it is always important to always have the user in mind, it is also a giant task for the people doing the low-level work (mechanical designers, computer programmers) to visualize how the device will be used on an everyday basis instead of focusing on their next deadline for feature delivery. The process takes not only programmers and designers, but also managers that focus on the user.

While the book may have been relevant to readers back in the 80s when it was written, it is not as applicable now. Many products, especially computer systems and PCs, have changed so much since that time and are now much more user-friendly and accessible. The problems that he had with telephone systems are mostly gone (although I'm sure he would have lots to say today about cell phones). It seems that designers in today's world are starting to understand, and hire quality assurance testers, usability testers, and user-interface experts to make sure their products are usable before they start to sell them. But, not all designers do that. With increasing technology, designers feel like they have to add more and more features, and it comes with a price: only the most advanced and younger users who grew up with mobile devices and innovations like the ones that are released today can truly enjoy and use them correctly. Overall, it was a nice read, even though he really was extremely angry at computer programmers and systems designers!