Book Reading #11 - Design of Everyday Things

Title:
Chapter 4: Knowing What to Do

Reference:
Norman, Donald. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic, 2002.

Summary:

In the chapter Knowing What to do, Norman shows how constraints should aid in the things we set out to do.  He gives the example of a little Lego police bike which is simple to put together even if people have never seen the final result.  He gives four different constraints: physical, semantic, cultural, and logical.  Physical constraints limit the use of things in meaningful ways, semantic restraints show why the object would be used, cultural restraints relate to the world around us, and logical constraints just make sense.

He starts again on talking about the inefficient design of doors and switches and how they do not have good affordances.  He suggests a modification of current day light switches to actually show a meaningful mapping of the room.

Norman finally revisits visibility and feedback as important characteristics.  He also proposes the use of sound as a feedback, but warns it could be annoying.


Discussion:
This chapter seemed to be a repeat of the first chapter.  All the illustrations were similar, and aside from the fact that he did not point to a phone in every example, I think I understand his argument.  Norman does make good points that are worth thinking about.