Information Design II:

"The Design of Every Day Things", by Donald A. Norman

Chapter 1

Norman’s first chapter distinguishes between well-designed and poorly designed objects, identifying the principles behind good design. Norman defines well-designed objects as “easy to interpret” and “understandable” (2). This ease of interpretation is often linked to the visibility of natural clues which guide the user in her actions. Designers should take advantage of affordances, or perceived properties of how something could be used, to provide clues for usability. Poorly designed objects leave users without any guidance on how to use the object. Norman sites the example of a telephone as being a device that lacks visibility. Because of the volume of functions, telephones typically lack enough buttons to lay out all of the functions available to the user. Norman also sites examples of excessive visibility, such as the VCR, where too many controls are available, likening such appliances to “Hollywood’s idea of a spaceship control room” (7). Balance of visibility is critical to illustrate how to operate the device’s critical functions. Norman states that technological advancement is problematic for design. As technologies inherit more features, the number of features often exceeds the number of controls. Norman calls this phenomenon the “paradox of technology” (31). Well-designed objects also should provide a good conceptual model to allow users to predict the effects of their actions. The designer’s conceptual model should match the user’s mental model as much as possible or else the user will not know how to interpret the device. Designers should also use mapping when designing objects. Mapping is the term describing the relationship between the controls of an object and the effects in the world.

Chapter 2

This chapter discusses the psychology of everyday actions, stating that users often blame themselves when they are unable to execute an action. Norman likens the result to the phenomenon Learned Helplessness. Learned Helplessness states that when people repeatedly fail at a task, they often deduce that they are incapable of executing the task. Subsequently the user stops trying and feels helpless. Norman states that the root of learned helplessness may be poorly designed everyday objects themselves. According to Norman, taught helplessness stems from the psychological effects of badly designed objects which promote faulty mental models.

Norman then describes the Action Cycle people follow when executing an action and states that the Seven Stage structure can act as a designer’s checklist to ensure that each action can be executed by the user.

1. First, people devise a goal of what is to be achieved.
2. Goals are then transformed into intentions, or specific statements of what is to be done.
3. A specific action is decided upon.
4. The action is executed.
5. The state of the world is perceived.
6. The state of the world is interpreted.
7. The outcome is evaluated.

Norman later concludes the chapter by stating that the principles of visibility, conceptual models, mapping and feedback, as discussed in Chapter 1, provide support for each of the seven stages below. Norman also states that within this course of action, users can experience gulfs of execution and evaluation where they are unsure how to map controls to the intended action or they are unsure if actions were executed successfully. The Gulf of Execution is the gap between the intentions of the user and the allowable actions of the device. The Gulf of Evaluation indicates the amount of effort that the user must exert to determine whether goals and intentions have been met with success.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 distinguishes between knowledge in the head and knowledge in the world. Both knowledge in the head and knowledge in the world can be distributed to accomplish a task. The combination of information in the world, information in the head and constraints (both natural and cultural) can result in precise behavior. Knowledge in the head is defined as memory. Norman distinguishes between arbitrary or rote memory (difficult because learners do not understand the reasons for their actions), memory for meaningful relationships (the Japanese motorcycle example) and memory through explanations (the Audi sunroof example). Memory is also described as knowledge in the world as we create physical reminders in the world that trigger memory. Good natural mappings reduce the need for information to be committed to memory (the stove example). Labels often point to a poor design. If a design is labeled, designers should consider revamping the design to make us of natural mappings instead. The chapter concludes with the trade offs between knowledge in the head and knowledge in the world. Knowledge in the world acts as its own reminder, helping users remember what they otherwise could forget, while knowledge in the head is more efficient, never requiring users to reinterpret an environment. Users need to go through a learning process to acquire knowledge in the head which can be difficult and time-consuming. Knowledge in the world is easy to learn, but is more difficult to use as environments change.

Chapter 4

This chapter, entitled “Knowing What to Do”, discusses how people know how to deal with novel situations. Norman starts the chapter by stating that the difficulty in dealing with novel situation is directly related to the number of possibilities. Design can signal the appropriate action through natural constraints which limit what can be done with the object. Other clues come from the affordances of objects. (Affordances indicate the range of opportunities while constraints limit them.) Physical constraints rely on the physical world. Semantic constraints rely on the meaning of the situation to control a set of actions. Cultural constraints rely on accepted cultural conventions. Norman concludes the chapter by stating that it is critical to “make visible the invisible” through use of good displays which provide visual feedback. If appropriate, sound can provide useful feedback to users as well.

It scares me how little designers adhere to Norman's guidelines above. For example, I still cannot retrieve voicemail messages from my work's mailbox from home ("what do I press now, '*8'?"), and still pull handles in my office building when they need to be pushed. My yanks and spasms cause quite a chuckle at the office at my personal expense. I appreciate Norman's sound advice which has helped me discontinue the negative internal dialog that used to ensue when I was unable to use a device properly and has made me look at the design of everyday things with a critical eye.