#Don Norman

[literary-illuminati]

Reading a book about industrial/process design and a point that is repeatedly brought up is that 'whose fault is this/who can we blame' is the single most useless question when investigating the causes of an accident/mishap - if 'human error' is a major problem, that means the systems have not been designed properly.

I feel like this is a point that a lot of people on here could stand to generalize and take to heart.

[kirabug-tumbles]

I can’t help but think of Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things) which is essentially one long academic rant about how things that should be used a certain way need to be designed to be easy to use that way, and things that are designed to look good but not to work well are shit. 

This is also a great example of an assistive technology that just looks like an unusual kettle. Yes, it is an unusual kettle. But as @bundibird​ points out it’s most valuable to people with disabilities who can’t use the usual kettles. 

One wonders whether, in another universe, this is the usual kettle and the ones we pick up and move (and potentially drop or spill on ourselves) are the unusual ones just by virtue of being harder to use. 

Introducing: cursed tea "kettles" I found on google

Hal 9000 (domesticated)

The slab

Gas cans

Precambrian little guy

Nintendo wii

[ehssafetynewsamerica-blog]

Design Rules Based on Analyses of Human Error

This older paper (1983) from Don Norman is pretty interesting – exploring design approaches to performance variability. There’s MUCH newer and …Design Rules Based on Analyses of Human Error

[linusjf]

Don Norman: Hardest part of design

“The hardest part of design is keeping features out.” —Don Norman.

[marianamendezartg210]

Summary #6

These texts talk about how designs, especially in technology and voting, often don't consider the needs of the elderly. Even though people are living longer, designs can be hard for the elderly, with small writing and complicated features. Designs that work for everyone, or “inclusive designs”, are hard to find, and the few that exist are considered ugly. Other text mentions problems with voting, like confusing layouts on ballots. It suggests that we need more people to know about the effects of bad design, and organizations like the American Institute of Graphic Arts should promote better design, especially for important things like ballots. The example of a redesigned Florida ballot shows how changing the design can make things clearer and prevent mistakes. 

REAL WORLD EXAMPLE:

Last summer I went to Los Angeles with my family, and we got an “accessibility-friendly” room in the hotel, but the shower was placed inside a bathtub. The problem was that the tub was really high, so if someone who needed a wheelchair tried to use it, it would be hard for them to shower. (I couldn’t find the picture I had, but this one from “agonda.com” is the closest one I could find)

I would improve the room by putting a regular shower with a big door to make it more accessible for those who need a wheelchair. 

Take-aways:

Design challenges for the elderly 

Importance of inclusive design 

Issues in voting systems 

We Need Better Designs

Impact of redesign 

[cleave-and-plough]

finally digging into this one, been looking forward to it

[wh0-is-lily]

Brigitte Bardot And Jane Birkin in, "Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman", 1973.

[a-ux-person]

What could be the benefit of telling the person what they can't do? If I'm told to "Pull" then I'll know to pull not push?

And, aside from all that, I'm sure we've heard of the Norman Door.

"A Norman door is a poorly designed door that confuses or fails to give you an idea whether to push or pull. It was named after Don Norman, the author of The Design of Everyday Things which explored the phenomenon." [link] (There's a video of Don Norman talking about his door in that article.)

This, of course, applies to more than just doors.

This sign shouldn't need to exist at all, I should be able to visibly tell from the design of the door how to use it (and my assumption should be correct).

[raspbrrytea]

Afternoon nap

[milkcookiekin]

in honor of Valentine’s Day coming up soon and me wanting to write for other fandoms besides phighting, here’s a treat for the zombie of a fandom we call yakusoku no neverland <3

(of course, this is after escaping to the human world!)

Emma would 100% be the type to take you out on a picnic date. she planned out everything, the scenery with the fairy lights wrapped around the trees, the sunset looks perfect, the food tastes delicious, but it also looks so cute and you feel bad for eating it. she reassured you, and she also just has the cutest little smile on her face while you eat peacefully, she’s just really happy to be spending time with you. you guys end up snuggling as you watch the sunset and just talk about your random thoughts together.

Norman would either take you out on a library or a fancy dinner date, he wants the date to be casual, but also not enough to where he looks like he didn’t put much thought into it. throughout the whole date, he’s happily listening to you ramble about your interests and he makes mental notes so he knows what to buy for you later during the date. though, he’s also very shy and nervous, he doesn’t talk that much throughout it all because he just wants to listen to you, and shaking every time you guys touch even the slightest bit.

Ray on the other hand, is much more comfortable with the idea of having the date be as comfy as possible. he decided a nice date at home on a rainy day was his favorite way to spend Valentine’s Day. he doesn’t really make this occasion a big thing, but he does his best to show his affection. he reads to you with a soothing tone as he plays some soft lofi music in the background, but he’s not actually all that interested in the book, he’s more interested in seeing your reactions, especially as the rain helps lull you to sleep, and he smiles softly. you guys end up falling asleep together all cuddled up with each other.

Don would take you to a big theme park, and you guys go on as many rides as possible before the night rolls around. if you’re afraid of heights, then he’ll take you to an arcade instead, and he actually ends up winning you a lot of prizes and gifts, which is exactly what he wanted, because he wanted to impress you, but you reassure him that spending time with him was more than enough, and he swore he felt butterflies in his stomach for the rest of the night. (he ended up not getting any sleep, he just thought about the date the whole night)

Gilda would most definitely take you out shopping, buying clothes and plushies, and overall just having a fun time. she helps you look for outfits and accessories she knows you’ll love, and has you try them on like you’re on a runaway as she’s complimenting you and cheering you on endlessly! if you’re more self-conscious, she’ll hug you and let you know that you’re absolutely gorgeous, and that nothing could ever change that..

(bonus if Gilda almost gets into a fight with a Karen for being “too loud” while she’s cheering you on)

[goldiipond]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE SERIES THAT RUINED MY LIFE <3<3<3

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #54 – The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

I try to read a piece of somewhat respectable nonfiction every month or so, which means I’m always vaguely on the lookout for titles that seem interesting and which aren’t either inspiration porn or just some random New Yorker’s collection of personal essays. I first heard of Design in an editorial in a local paper, which described it as a ‘seminal read’ – the basic conceit and title both seemed interesting so I through it on the list and, however many months later, finally got around to read with it. It was interesting, but altogether a more dense and technical read than I was at all prepared for when I picked it up.

The book is about what it says on the tin – looking at the processes and practices of industrial design and how it can be best applied to create useful, pleasurable tools. It is very much written for an assumed audience of at least interested amateurs or casual practitioners, with lots of specific practical tips and guidelines for the working designer to apply to their own projects. For the same reason it isn’t at all shy about the jargon or business-school models and charts.

Design, from the book’s perspective, covers an extremely broad field – everything from the physical structure of a tool to the systems and procedures that should be followed for its safe operation to the aesthetics and layout that give the most enjoyable and frictionless user experience handling it. The book considers its principles equally applicable to designing physical products and bureaucratic systems, and is mostly even convincing as it says so. That said, it absolutely assume that whatever is being designed is being designed by a large, multi-team project with budgets and stakeholders, and designed for sale on the private market, both of which do shape the advice given quite clearly (the entire final part of the book is about ‘designing in the real world’ and about these exact conditions).

The prose is written with the precise tone and cadence of an above-average but not great professor giving a long, rambling lecture that illustrates every single point with a tangential personal anecdote – though my mind may only jump to that comparison because that’s basically what this is in book form. It is not, being honest, ever exactly gripping or a page-turner; this was probably the book whose reading felt most like homework of any I’ve opened so far these year. Something not at all helped by the fact that the field of industrial design does the same thing as every other slice of academia and redefines a bunch of very common nouns to be very precise and occasionally very counterintuitive terms of art (though in fairness the book could have been much worse about this).

That aside, I did find the jargon mostly helpful, in terms of clarifying and separating out concepts. The distinction between capabilities (what a given device can be used for) and signifiers (the implicit or explicit ways a device presents itself to be used) is useful and pretty easy to keep in my head, for example.

The initial chapters of the book are primarily about the theory and best practices of designing specific, physical things – for example, how it represents a shameful failure for a door to ever require a sign or instructions on how it should be opened. This was probably the roughest part for me to get through, just because I felt like I should be taking quizzes or filling out worksheets to make sure I remembered everything correctly as I went – the sections get dense. It was fascinating reading to bludgeon through though, if only as a collection of the most practical insights yet provided by the study of human psychology. None of the best practices and recommendations given – never require the user to input more than a few commands without feedback or guidance, map the layout of controls to correspond to the physical ordering of the things they control, mechanical commands should feel like they have some sort of intuitive relationship to their effect, that sort of thing – exactly blew my mind, but it was helpful to see them laid out. Also interesting how much a lot of them contrast so strongly with the minimalist, ‘clean’ aesthetic which actually governs the design of so much these days.

The sections on mistakes and accidents were probably the most interesting and compelling in their own right. Maybe because I found the examples more intuitive, or maybe just because industrial accidents and airline disasters are more attention-grabbing examples than confusing and inefficient light switch layouts. In any case, the typology of mistakes versus errors (basically: whether you are trying to do the wrong thing, or trying to do the right thing and just failing in execution) and their subcategories seem genuinely quite useful, as do the various meditations on how to make both types less common.

This is also the section that has stuck with me in the most detail, if probably just because it seems like it might have some direct relevance to day-to-day life. Most especially the idea that focusing on how to assign fault or blame is the most useless possible thing to do when trying to investigate an accident – it only makes everyone motivated to hide any involvement they might have had, and lets you stop thinking about it as soon as you decide who is responsible without ever digging into the actual causes of the mistake. ‘Human error’ is, in Norman’s view, a mirage – if people are making dangerous or expensive mistakes at any appreciable rate, then that is axiomatically a failure of the systems which should be supporting and guiding them.

The fact that airline disasters are drastically overrepresented in the case studies used because the investigative infrastructure for them is uncommonly (almost bizarrely, really) well-designed and diligently maintained in the US is also just a fun bit of a trivia.

The third part of the book is about the actual process of designing something in a large organization. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is mostly about bureaucratic politics and navigating frictions between, say, the design and marketing teams – the offered distinction that design is about making things that are useful and good whereas marketing’s input on the process is ensuring it is something that people will be willing to buy is pithy and memorable, if perhaps one that people on the marketing team might not be entirely happy with. This, along with terms like ‘the double-diamond design process’ and the oft-repeated saying that ‘the day a project starts it’s behind schedule and under budget’, and the gratuitous use of Japanese, all left me with the uncanny feeling of walking into an MBA seminar.

This is in fact an extremely famous and successful book – I know, because this is a heavily revised second edition, and the new material never missed a chance to say so. Having come out in 2013, the updated material – overwhelmingly about software UX, the internet, and smartphone design, because of course it is – is already somewhat charmingly outdated. The additions did include a long and very interesting section on changing standards, standardization, and when it is or isn’t worth the massive disruption involved (including a fascinating if probably not entirely trustworthy digression into the history of the QWERTY keyboard), so on the whole I’m happy I got this edition rather than the original from the ‘80s.

Overall, not a book I’m likely to open again anytime soon unless I end up making a dramatic change of careers, but interesting enough that I don’t regret reading it.

[1000sunnygo]

Shirai and Posuka's answers to fan questions are here!

Here's the first batch! Part 2 will be released next week.

(the missing question asked which character Shirai sensei sees himself resembling to)

("colored door" implied the colored chapter cover pages. In japanese they're called "tobirae"/扉絵 which literally reads door art)

[fullscoreshenanigans]

yakuneba_staff's special wallpaper to commemorate the series' 8th anniversary, incorporating the covers of the second and fourth light novels.

[officersnickers]

Smirk of a boy who thinks he's so smart

(narrator voice: he's not)

[oldshowbiz]

Don Knotts versus Norman Fell