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Essay / Analysis of the book "The Design of Everyday Things", written by Don Norman
Table of ContentsIntroductionConclusionReferences:IntroductionThis report is based on the book The Design of Everyday Things; a revised and expanded edition, written by Don Norman. It focuses on the fundamentals of each chapter.Author DetailsDonald Arthur Norman, commonly known as Don Norman, is regarded for his expertise in areas such as cognitive science, usability engineering, and design. He is currently the director of the Design Lab at the University of California and runs his company; Advanced technology at Apple, which allows companies to produce human-centered products (Bloomberg, 2018). The Design of Everyday Things was published by Basic Books and is copyright 2013 by Don Norman (Norman, 2013). He has spearheaded the implementation of cognitive science in design. Summary The book focuses on principles that seek to explain how individuals manage to interact with unusual natural or artificial objects, which may or may not be similar to those who are aware of it. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The first chapter focuses on the importance of means and signifiers in design and whose characteristics are consistent with the qualities expected of good design, including understandability and discoverability. He emphasizes that to be effective, financial means and resources must be perceptible. For example, a bed provides support and therefore allows you to lie down. However, only one being can carry a particular bed; thus the bed allows you to lift yourself up. As such, if weak individuals cannot carry a bed, then it is not accessible to them and therefore the object cannot be lifted by the agent. The chapter also sheds light on signifiers as indicators that communicate where an action should occur, thereby dictating an individual's expected behavior (Norman, 2013). For example, using the absence of people waiting at a bus station to determine if a person missed the bus. The book states that signifiers are signaling elements of affordances, which help individuals understand possible actions without the need for instructions. For example, a handle on a door is both meaningful and seen as an opportunity. Additionally, when it comes to technology, the book offers signifiers to understand internal models about what things mean and how things work. Thus, this chapter focuses on the interaction between people and technology, ensuring that products meet the desired needs while being usable. Chapter two focuses on the effort required to interpret an object and determine how well the seven-step action meets one's expectations. The process facilitates understanding of human action and guides design. For example, lack of light makes reading difficult, which triggers the light to turn on and triggers the subgoal of becoming lighter to achieve the main goal: reading. A second case is when an individual purchases a book for the primary need of completing an assignment. The chapter highlights that reflective, behavioral, and visceral levels of processing interact to determine a person's needs and tastes for a product (Norman, 2013). For example, when an individual has positive experiences with an object, the visceral response is an instantaneous positive perception, the reflective response is an in-depth evaluation of the event whilethe behavioral intervention recommends the product. Chapter three highlights that precise behavior can arise from imprecise knowledge, which allows individuals to survive in new and confusing situations where they do not know how to react. For example, individuals are not familiar with familiar banknotes, even though they can distinguish the value of one currency from another. Another example is traffic lights on industrial equipment, which indicate knowledge of the world. Individuals, however, avoid confusion and discrimination through distinctive features. Mapping is an example of the power of combining head and world knowledge because it is a relationship between the components of two sets of objects. For example, waving your hand at a napkin dispenser but not receiving any napkins leads you to wonder if the machine is out of product or broken. However, the mapping varies by culture: different cultures depict vertical timelines while others use parallel timelines. Therefore, this chapter focuses on how knowledge in the head combines with that in the world and how individuals acquire and apply knowledge. Chapter four highlights that constraints are cues that limit a set of possible behaviors or actions, thus allowing individuals to choose the appropriate action in a novel situation. For example, the design of a key; the smooth and serrated sides limit its insertion into a lock. Elements such as signifiers, means and constraints simplify encounters with natural or artificial objects (Joshi, Nash & Ransom, 2008). For example, a socket allows the connection, the hollow and the drawing in a signifier, the fixed hole for a charger is a constraint. Failure to deploy the simplifyers could cause problems. For example, not knowing how to operate a cabinet door can be frustrating because it can be lifted, pulled, pushed or slid. Culture, through convections, provides knowledge about how individuals should behave. For example, there is a worldwide convention that screw threads tighten by turning clockwise and loosen counterclockwise. Thus, this chapter sheds light on how designers can offer critical information that would enable individuals to know what to do, especially when faced with unfamiliar situations or devices. Chapter five shows that errors occur due to interruptions, people's attitudes toward oversights, and the nature of errors. procedures and tasks that require unnatural behaviors from individuals. For example, remaining alert for hours while multitasking can cause a lapse in the functions one manages. Root cause analysis should be used to establish the underlying cause of an error rather than the immediate cause, because most accidents have multiple sources. For example, if a machine stops working, the cause could be a faulty cable, a broken machine part or an overload, among others. The “five whys” approach can be used to analyze the root cause (Norman, 2013). A mistake can be a mistake; when an individual inappropriately performs an action required for an initial goal or an error; where the goal itself is unjustified. For example, a mistake might be forgetting to turn off a burner after cooking, while a mistake might be not finishing a