Book Reading #14: The Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 5:To Err is Human

The Design of Everyday Things

Donald A. Norman

Summary: In this chapter, Noman discusses the relationship between errors and the design of everyday things. Norman starts by distinguishing between slips and mistakes: slips are errors in the execution of the action, we try doing something, but end up doing something else; mistakes on the other side are errors of though, we aim at an "inappropriate goal." He defines the types of slips, as well as some models of human thought that help explain mistakes. Norman then introduces the concept of tasks, and how there are part of our daily life, we don't really have to give them much thought before performing them. This leads to the discussion of conscious and subconscious behavior, where Norman discusses how humans react to explaining away errors; how social pressure can sometimes lead to mistakes; and how forcing functions try to avoid errors, but sometimes they are not designed properly.

Discussion: For me the most interesting part of this chapter was social pressure and how it has an effect on making errors. I think this part of the chapter could have been a little more emphasized, but this information still got the point across. Also, something that I don't think I will forget is concept definitions given by Norman: An error can be a mistake or a slip. A mistake is an error of thought; a slip is an error in the execution of the activity. Like in the previous chapters, I can always relate to the examples given by Norman.