The Design of Everyday Things
By: Donald A. Norman
Response to Chapter 5:
To Err is Human
Slips
Types of Slips
Capture Errors
Description Errors
Data-Driven Errors
Associative Activation Errors
Loss-of-Activation Errors
Mode Errors
Detecting Slips
Design Lessons from the Study of Slips
Mistakes as Errors of Thought
Some Models of Human Thought
Connectionist Approach
The Structure of Tasks
Wide and Deep Structures
Shallow Structures
Narrow Structures
Nature of Everyday Tasks
Conscious and Subconscious Behavior
Explaining Away Errors
Social Pressure and Mistakes
Designing for Error
How to Deal with Error - and How NOT To
Forcing Functions
A Design Philosophy
Response to Chapter 6:
The Design Challenge
The Natural Evolution of Design
Forces that Work Against Evolutionary Design
The Typewriter: A Case History in the Evolution of Design
Why Designers Go Astray
Putting Aesthetics First
Designers are Not Typical Users
The Designer's Clients May Not Be Users
The Complexity of the Design Process
Designing for Special People
Selective Attention: The Problem of Focus
The Faucet: A Case History of Design Difficulties
Two Deadly Temptations for the Designer
Creeping Featurism
The Worshipping of False Images
The Foibles of Computer Systems
How to do Things Wrong
It's Not Too Late to Do Things Right
Computer as Chameleon
Explorable Systems: Inviting Experimentation
Two Modes of Computer Usage
The Invisible Computer of the Future
Response to Chapter 7:
User-Centered Design
Seven Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks into Simple Ones
Use Both Knowledge in the World and Knowledge in the Head
Three Conceptual Models
The Role of Manuals
Simplify the Structure of Tasks
Keep the Task much the Same, but Provide Mental Aids
Use Technology to make Visible what would otherwise be Invisible, thus Improving Feedback and the Ability to Keep Control
Automate, but keep the Task much the Same
Change the Nature of the Task
Don't Take Away Control
Make Things Visible: Bridge the Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation
Get the Mappings Right
Exploit the Power of Constraints, both Natural and Artificial
Design for Error
When All Else Fails, Standardize
Standardization and Technology
The Timing of Standardization
Deliberately Making Things Difficult
Designing a Dungeons and Dragons Game
Easy Looking is Not Necessarily Easy to Use
Design and Society
How Writing Method Affects Style
From Quill and Ink to Keyboard and Microphone
Outline Processors and Hypertext
Home of the Future: A Place of Comfort or a New Source of Frustration
Response to the Book in General:
