Monday, April 25, 2011

Book Reading #51: Living With Complexity

Living With Complexity
Donald A. Norman

Summary:
Chapter 1: In the first chapter of this book, Norman differentiates between complexity and complicated. Something that is complex is described as a state of mind, however something that is understandable, just maybe difficult to master. Something that is complicated is something that is confusing, difficult to understand. Norman claims that complex things can be enjoyable and desirable. When things are too simple, they may appear as boring. 

Chapter 2: Norman discusses the idea that simplicity is in the mind of each individual. Depending on the scenario and the situation the individual is, that is the level of complexity that he will give to a certain task. Norman again discusses Conceptual Models, and how they are created either simple or complex depending on the individual. Norman also demonstrates that not even the things we believe the most simple, are in fact simple. Each artifact should have an appropriate level of complexity. Norman also reaches to the conclusion that individuals prefer an intermediate level of complexity. As previously states, individuals may find simple stuff to be boring and unworthy.

Discussion: One of the main topics so far in the book is the idea that we should be able to differentiate between something that is complex from something that is confusing. The fact that certain device looks simple, does not necessarily mean it is better, in fact in many of the cases means that the device is even more complicated than it really looks like. When reading about this it reminded my about the example Norman gave in one of his previous readings, and how we may think that a phone with less buttons is simpler, however, the telephone does not provide enough information to create an appropriate mental model.

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