Living With Complexity

Title:
Living With Complexity - Full Blog

Reference:
Norman, Donald.  Living with Complexity.  MIT Press.  Cambridge, Mass, 2011.

Summary:
Living with Complexity touched on topics discussed in the Design of Everyday Things.  What was present in the first four chapters were the ideas of why things are complex, why things are simple, some simple things aren't so simple, and social cues that aid us in understanding how to do something.

Norman makes a distinction between complex things and complicated.  Complex is in the design of the object or environment and complicated is an idea we attribute to something we do not understand.  With this in mind, simplicity is both a design issue and a perspective issue.  Something can look simple but actually be complicated.  Less does not always entail simplicity.  In order for things to be truly simple in our mind, we need to, in effect, become experts in that area or with a specific object.  In order to try and do this we often sketch in our minds a simpler version of the actual device.

Other things that can aid us in the recognition of how to use an object are putting the description back into the environment.  This can be done through signs, post-it notes, and other visual reminders that show us the use of a function.  Forcing functions, or making an objects use explicit by its perception is another way to make it more functional and usable.  People also learn from other people how to use things - through social cues.  This is almost like a forcing function as long as the tide of social cues is constant and people continue to benefit from these cues.

Discussion:
This book was the same old Donald Norman.  Very dry and easy to skim.  I feel like he writes his books just like papers.  This is good for gathering information in a rote sort of way, but not a very good read.  Nonetheless, the information is interesting and important.  The thing I appreciated the most about this book was the social cues aspect of it.  I have thought at a fairly low level about social cues, but this shed light into a much broader context to which this idea could be applied.