the design of everyday things, chapter 2

today i was reading the design of everyday things by donald a. norman. i found this book very interesting when i read the first chapter, although i wasn't as impressed when i read the second chapter. i was having a hard time relating the second chapter, "the psychology of everyday actions," to what i had read previously. i did in fact, finally find something on the last page of the chapter that interested me.

the chart titled, "2.7: using the seven stages to ask design questions," reads:

"how easily can one:
determine the function of the device?
tell what actions are possible?
determine mapping from intention to physical movement?
perform the action?
tell if the system is in desired state?
determine mapping from system state to interpretation?
tell what state the system is in?" (53)

Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books. 1988.

this checklist sums up the book. if a designer took these questions into serious consideration then there would be less bad designs in the world today. this assessment is the backbone of a great design. this could also be used as a questionnaire for consumer testing. these questions would give wonderful feedback to improve the product exactly where it is necessary. this was also interesting because i love organization and checklists.

hi, my name is kelsey. i'm a freshman at K this year and i'm taking the freshman seminar design intelligence. i'm really excited about the class! i love to analyze design. i have a strong background in marketing so i've been thinking a lot about the class from a marketing perspective. i'm also taking microecon, so it relates in a business aspect. i'm glad i get to gripe about products that are sub-par, because i love thinking about the solutions. i think that the book is interesting and has good examples to support of the author's beliefs.

later!