The Design of Everyday Things - ITEC830: Week 11

In reading chapter one of Donald A. Norman's The Design of Everyday Things I focused on answering the following questions:

1. What does the author identify as some of the drawbacks of modern versions of objects, such as phones?
• When visibility is lessened, users ability to infer function and operation of objects becomes more difficult.
• In terms of feedback, natural mapping of controls enables users to better implicitly understand what to do by creating a close, natural relationship between the control and function.
• Another concern in the realm of feedback is that when the amount of feedback is lessened, ease of use decreases because users are unsure if their actions are producing measurable/visible results. By building feedback mechanisms into a design, something like a digital display or audio feedback, users can link responses with their actions which allows them to more easily operate the system.
• A negative result of technological advancement is that what can be done by an object also increases (the object becomes smarter and more efficient at its task), this often results in the object becoming more difficult to operate. Visibility into how the object functions is also often obscured by technological advances, as a result user feedback can become unimportant to the object and causality may become completely disconnected from user interaction. To quote chapter one, “…the paradox of technology: added complexity and difficulty cannot be avoided when functions are added, but with clever design, they can be minimized.”
  
2. How is the notion of causality relevant to interactive web design?
• Causality is essential to web design. Users control where they are going and how they get there by making decisions about what content they are interested in. If a user clicked on a link and nothing happened, they would assume that the link was broken. This broken link would result in a lessening of confidence of the user in the quality and reliability of the website. A successful website also allows users to predict the effects of their actions through providing a good conceptual model where purpose and results are closely tied.
  
3. How does design relate to the notion of schema which learners create in their heads.
• Good design takes into account the schema that a user will create and then crafts a solution that relies upon visibility, constraints and good mapping which arise from their schema. By designing to the user, the product is easier to use and more effective at its purpose. Good design is built upon an understanding of the conceptual model created by users about the purpose and use of a product. When the model of the product aligns with the user’s conceptual model, good design occurs.