1. Select a brief passage from Chapter One of The Design of Everyday Things (Donald Norman) and post it on your blog. Explain why you thought it was interesting.
Affordances provide strong clues to the operations of things. Plates are for pushing. Knobs are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. Balls are for throwing or bouncing. When affordances are taken advantage of, the user knows what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or instruction is required. Complex things may require explanation, but simple things should not. When simple things need pictures, labels, or instructions, the design has failed. (page 9)
I like this part because is shows how simple things can be. It also shows how very small clues can say more than complicated instructions. Designers need to learn to take advantage of what consumers already know and think of as instinctual.
2. Norman's book was first published in 1988 and it still influences designers today. Why do you think this book continues to be influential 20 years later?
Norman's book is very easy to relate to. Everyone has been frustrated while trying to use something. Everyone can come up with the problems but it is more difficult to come up with a solution. This book is relevant because designers are still making mistakes. I believe they always will make mistakes but they should make some progress.
3. Based on this chapter, what factors would you include on a checklist for evaluating the design of a product?
* Does a product require instructions to preform any or all of its functions?
* If it requires instructions, are the easy to understand?
* If it requires instructions, can the user put them away after reading through them once?
* Can people of different generations use it with the same amount of ease?
* Is there some sort of visual or auditory feedback?
* Does the relationship between the action and the response make sense? (turning steering wheel left to make the car move left)
* When used properly, does it complete its task?
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