The Design of Everyday Things

02We waste too much time figuring out complex designs

In "The Design of Everyday Things," Don Norman points out that we humans often find ourselves wrestling with designs that are more complex than they need to be. Why? Because we're natural problem-solvers, always trying to make sense of the world around us. But when a design isn't intuitive or user-friendly, it can lead to frustration and wasted time. So, how can designers avoid this? Norman suggests a few key principles to keep designs simple and easy to understand. These include affordance, visibility, mappings, feedback, conceptual models, and mental models. Let's start with affordance. This is all about what an object can do, based on its physical properties. Take a chair, for example. It has a flat surface and a supportive back, so it's pretty clear that it's meant for sitting. No need for a manual to figure that out! But a pin, with its sharp point and tiny size, isn't exactly inviting you to take a seat. By understanding affordances, designers can create objects that are easy to use because their purpose is clear. Next up is visibility. This is about making sure users can see and understand what they can do with an object or system. Think about a door with a handle on one side and a flat surface on the other. It's pretty clear which side you should push and which side you should pull. If a design strays from what we're used to, it's important to provide clear, visible cues to guide users. Then we have mappings. These are the connections between controls and their effects. Good mappings are intuitive and easy to understand. Like the volume control on a radio - turn it clockwise to crank up the tunes, and counterclockwise to bring it down a notch. Most users will get this without needing a how-to guide. Feedback is the reaction a user gets after doing something. It lets users know if what they did worked or not. For instance, when you click a button on a website, it might change color or make a noise to let you know your click counted. Without feedback, users might be left wondering if anything happened at all, leading to confusion and frustration. Conceptual models are like simplified blueprints of how something works. They help users understand the system or process behind the scenes. A diagram of a car's transmission system, for example, can help a driver understand how shifting gears affects the car's speed. Conceptual models can be a big help in explaining complex systems or processes. Last but not least, we have mental models. These are the user's own understanding of how something works, based on their past experiences and knowledge. Good designs match up with users' mental models, making them easier to understand and use. Most people know that turning a key in a lock will open a door. A lock that needs a different action, like pushing a button, might throw users for a loop because it doesn't match their mental model of how locks work. By keeping these principles in mind, designers can create objects and systems that are easy to understand and use, cutting down on the time and effort users have to spend wrestling with unnecessarily complex designs.

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