Understanding: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, in my own words
Building a guide for myself, to help me understand what I am learning better. I am starting from simple understandings and hopefully building on them as I go. I plan to learn simply, but consistently. If there is an error, please let me know. Since these are my notes, I am skipping over examples unless I feel like I need them for my own understanding.
CHAPTER 1 - The Pyschopathology of Everyday Things
Main argument: What is Norman claiming? All objects are designed in some capacity. Good design, he says, stems from discoverability and understanding. Discoverability in this context, refers to the ability of the user to identify the usage of the object, and how the object works, and what actions the user can do on the object. Understanding refers to how well the user can understand the relationship between the user, the object, and the actions, as well as the results of actions. Good design should be intuitive more often than not, and should build on users' understanding and natural tendencies, including cultural conventions and psychological tendencies. Poorly designed products that provide users with confusion or frustration, are generally the fault of the design that fails to account for human nature, and psychology. Terminology Breakdown:
Human-centered design (HCD), is design that emphasizes the user's needs throughout the design process.
Affordances refers to the relationship between an object and the individual that interacts with it, which determines what the object is capable of being used for or doing.
Signifiers are things that identify how the object is intended to be used. Signifiers communicate the appropriate behavior to the user. They must be understandable to the user.
Constraints are limits on possible operations. (It was not fully discussed in chapter 1.)
Mapping is the relationship between two sets of things. These include spatial relationships, conceptual groupings, and various others. A useful example includes the dial in the fridge to monitor the temperature of the freezer and the fridge. One would expect that the dial in the freezer, would relate to the temperature in the freezer, and that the dial in the refrigerator would relate to the temperature in the fridge. The relationship pathway would be mapping.
Feedback is communicating the results of an action. This includes any type of feedback, sounds, lights, visual signals, that something has, or hasn't, occurred. Good design provides immediate feedback to the user.
Conceptual models are an explanation of how something works. These are often highly simplified.
System image refers to all the information available to the user that could be used to understand a product or service. This can contain things like manuals, advertisements, and salespeople. The user combines prior knowledge with the system image to form a conceptual model.
What is the difference between an affordance and a signifier? Give one example. An affordance is specifically the relationship between an object and the person interacting with it. The design of the object, and the abilities of the individual determine what the object can be used for. The example provided in the book is that of a chair. The chair's design allows it to be used for sitting. Therefore the chair affords sitting. If the chair is light enough and the individual is strong enough, the chair affords lifting. That relationship is innate between the two items, user and the object, regardless of whether or not the user is aware of these affordances.
A signifier, on the other hand, is something that may highlight a particular affordance. Handles on the bottom of the chair may signify to the user that the chair may be picked up. The presence of the handles does not dictate whether or not the chair could be picked up. The chair could always be picked up within that relationship. The signifier simply informs the user of that the chair is able to be picked up, making the affordance visible to the user. Signifiers can help clarify affordances. Or rather signifiers help us understand how to perform an action based on the affordance.
Source: Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things, revised and expanded edition, Chapter 1 (Basic Books, 2013).
