The Design of Everyday Things, part 2

1.  Select a brief passage from Chapter One of The Design of Everyday Things (Donald Norman) and post it on your blog. Explain why you thought it was interesting.

            “Devices in the home have developed some related problems: functions and more functions, controls and more controls. I do not think that simple home appliances – stoves, washing machines, audio and television sets – should look like Hollywood’s idea of a spaceship control room. They already do, much to the consternation of the consumer who, often as not, has lost (or cannot understand) the instruction manual, so – face with the bewildering array of controls and displays – simply memorizes one or two fixed settings to approximate what is desired. The whole purpose of the design is lost.”

            I found the above passage particularly interesting, especially the final sentence – “The whole purpose of the design is lost.” To begin with, the ideas this passage brings up are simply so true. If a device is so complicated that the consumer only gets minimal use out of it, this not only a waste of the designer’s time and effort making such a complicated creation, but also a waste of materials – as the consumer is not even putting most of the device to use. Furthermore, if the whole purpose of creating a device is so consumers can use it as a tool to help make their lives easier or more convenient, then why would designers go through the trouble of creating an overly complicated object that would only confuse the consumer and take up unnecessary amounts of their time?

2.  Norman’s book was first published in 1988 and it still influences designers today. Why do you think this book continues to be influential 20 years later?

            I think this book is still influential today because the points Norman makes are still very relevant. Although technology, industry, and products have changed drastically, the elements of design and the way consumers look at things are still similar. Designers still design to create new, unique, and revolutionary objects, and consumers still buy. Furthermore, consumers and users still look at and think of things the same way. We still wish for things to be presented to us in a logical matter, and we still get frustrated when things do not work the way we expect them to.

3.  Based on this chapter, what factors would you include on a checklist for evaluating the design of a product?

            Based on this first chapter, when evaluating a product’s design, there are many factors I would take into account. First, the product needs to be simple enough to easily understand while having enough functions to perform the tasks it is supposed to perform. It must also provide feedback that will let the user know if something is going wrong. Furthermore, the product should be appealing to the consumer, both because of the way it looks and because of the task it performs.