Lou Fuiano
ITI Spring 2006
Duff

The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman

Mid Term Notes

CHAPTER ONE
Can't figure things out
Frustrations of everyday life
> glass doors
> phones

The Psychology of everyday things
AFFORDANCES
Is for

Twenty thousand everyday things
Conceptual models

Principals of Design for Usability and Understandability
Provide a good conceptual model
>freezer

Make things visible
>transferred calls
>hold button

MAPPING
>steering wheel

FEEDBACK
>push button phones
Pity the poor designer
The Paradox of Technology

CHAPTER TWO
FALSLEY BLAMING YOURSELF
Things going wrong, who's to blame

NAIVE PHYSICS
People as explanitory creatures

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
TAUGHT HELPLESSNESS
The Nature of Human Thought and Explanation
SEVEN STAGES OF OF ACTION
forming the goal | forming the intention | specifying the action | perceiving the state of the world | interpreting the state of the world \ evaluating the outcome
>opportunistic rather than planned

GULF OF EXECUTION AND EVALUATION
>too many steps between the goal and intention
>feedback

GOOD DESIGN: visibility | good conceptual model | good mappings | feedback

CHAPTER THREE
Precise behavior from imprecise knowledge
>imformation is in the world | precision is not requires | natual constraints are present | cultural constraints are present

WORLD INFO
>travel
>what exactly is on a coin
>know enough

THE POWER OF CONSTRATINTS
>remembering something based on rhyme
Memory is knowledge in the head
>Technology puts stress on shoet term memory

CHAPTER FOUR
Knowing what to do
CONSTRAINTS
>doors
>switches
>mapping

CHAPTER FIVE
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
the connectionist approach

THE STRUCTURE OF TASKS
wide and deep structures
shallow structures
narrow structures
the 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: interlock, lockin, lockout

A DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

CHAPTER SIX
THE NATURAL EVOLUTION OF DESIGN
Forces that work against evolutionary design
The typewriter

WHY DESIGNERS GO ASTRAY
Designers are not typical users
Designers clients may not be typical users

THE COMPLEXITY OF THE DESIGN PROCESS
Designing for special people
Selective attention

THE FAUCET

DEADLY TEMPTATIONS FOR THE DESIGNER
Creeping featurism
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

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