Chapter 2: The Psychology of Everyday Actions
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
Summary: In this chapter, Norman discusses some misconceptions and erroneous ideas that sometimes people decide to believe in order to make life simpler. For example, falsely blaming ourselves for not being able to use an object, when in reality the object has a bad design. Or blaming the wrong cause for something that happened only because by coincidence one happened right after the other. Norman also talks about some misconceptions that we may have about everyday life, for example the way a thermostat works; he explains that we are explanatory creatures, thus we try to have an explanation of everything. He then discusses two concepts, learned helplessness and taught helplessness, that can be the reasoning behind self blame. Lastly, he discusses the Seven Stages of Action that individuals "use" when carrying out an action.
Discussion: The examples presented in this chapter just make me remember about similar situations that I have encountered in the past, for example, having someone think that an object works one way, but in reality it doesn't, so do you tell the person that's not how it works, or do you just let it go? I have to admit I have let it go in the past.
I like how Norman relates the principles he presented in the first chapter to the information at the end of this chapter. It helps me understand the point that he is really trying to make.
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