Challenges with Simple Objects: Even simple devices like doors and light switches can be confusing to operate.
Norman Doors: Doors that are confusing to use are known as Norman doors, named after the author.
User Stories: Examples of confusing door designs that lead to user errors.
Design Failures: Poor designs are often beautiful but lack utility.
Design Principles
Discoverability: Understanding what actions are possible and how to perform them.
Understanding: Knowing how a product is supposed to be used.
Visibility: Relevant components must be visible and communicate the right message.
Good Design Characteristics
Signals and Indications: Use of natural signals like vertical plates or visible supporting pillars for doors.
User Manual Importance: Complex devices may need instruction manuals to aid in discoverability and understanding.
Unnecessary Complexity: Many modern devices are overly complex, leading to user frustration.
Examples of Poor Design
Italian Washer/Dryer: A device with overly complex controls leading to user frustration.
Human Behavior: Humans often memorize one way to use overly complicated devices.
Design Discipline
Field of Design: Design is a relatively new field now divided into many specialties such as industrial design, interaction design, and experience design.
Broader Implications: Every designed object affects user experience and needs to meet human needs while being understandable and usable.
Aims of This Book
Focus on Everyday Things: The book looks at the interplay between technology and people.
Understanding Usability: Emphasis on making products understandable and usable while also delightful and enjoyable.
Types of Design
Industrial Design: Optimizing function, value, and appearance of products for mutual benefit of user and manufacturer.
Interaction Design: Enhancing people’s understanding of technology, making it usable and enjoyable.
Experience Design: Focus on the overall experience with products, services, and environments.
The Human-Machine Relationship
Design Failures: When machines are poorly designed, they can lead to user frustration, inefficiency, and even danger.
Human Error: Often blamed incorrectly on users rather than on poor design.
Role of Engineers: Many engineers lack understanding of human behavior, which is necessary for effective design.
Lessons from Three Mile Island
Design Blame: Poor design of control rooms was a root cause of the nuclear power accident.
Necessity of Good Design: Understanding both technology and human behavior is essential for effective design.
Human-Centered Design (HCD)
Principles: Putting human needs, capabilities, and behavior first in the design process.
Communication: Importance of good communication between machine and person.
Fundamental Principles of Interaction
Discoverability, Feedback, Conceptual Models: Important for making devices user-friendly.
Affordances and Signifiers: Understanding the relationship between objects and users to determine usability.
Mappings: Relationship between controls and their effects; critical for usability.
The Paradox of Technology
Added Complexity: New technologies add convenience but also complexity, making them difficult to learn and use.
User Experience: Challenges in balancing functionality with usability.
Design Challenges and Requirements
Multidisciplinary Approach: Successful design requires the cooperation of multiple disciplines like engineering, marketing, and usability.
User Focus: Products should satisfy user needs and be easy to use.
Holistic View: Understanding all viewpoints in the design process is crucial for product success.
Market Viability: A product also needs to be viable in the market to be successful.