Book Reading #1: Microblogs for Design of Everyday Things

Reference Information

• Title: The Design of Everyday Things
• Author: Donald A. Norman
• Presentation: 

Chapter 1
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THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY THINGS

Summary
In this fist chapter of the book, Norman introduces how important is the design of the thousands of items we use everyday. He explains various design concepts that are necessary to recognize and analyze when designing an item such as visibility, a natural design, mappings, affordances, constraints, feedback, a conceptual model, and finally a design model. At the end of the chapter, Norman also recognizes that designing is not an easy task, and designers have to meet the expectations of the manufacture, the stores, and of course the customers.

Discussion
This first chapter made me realize that every little thing that we use has a design. Someone, somewhere sat down one day and dedicated their time to design this item, and most of the times we take these designs for granted. I mostly agree with what Norman is trying to convey, the idea that the design must be easy and fast to understand, the concept of visibility. For example, just recently I was over at a friend's house, they had a brand new stove with a completely digital board. I can easily say that it had over 25 buttons! I am sure that if I dedicate some of my time to look at all these buttons I can easily figure out its functions, but it was not designed to follow what we are naturally used to. I believe that every new thing that is added to an item should increase the technology, but it also increases the complexity. I am not sure if everybody is willing to give up the simplicity of 5 or 6 buttons on a stove to the complexity of more than 25!