Blog 3: Book Reflection
Don Norman’s book The Design of Everyday Things examines the breadth and depth of interactions between people and the physical world. The term “things” refers not only to physical objects, but also to any artificial construct, such as software and digital interfaces. The book discusses how design acts as a gateway of connectivity between object and user, how to optimize that give a wholesome experience to users.
I chose this book because I want to pursue a career in product management, and knowing how to design well is an important component of that. This is one of the basic books that is recommended by industry pioneers to read to understand the concept of “Human Centered Design” (HCD). Over time, technology has brought about advancements and innovations that have made our lives easier. Devices are becoming more intricate as they become more layered with options. Because objects are made and used by humans, the design must be carefully considered to ensure that it meets their requirements and capabilities. Objects should be designed to accommodate humans rather than the other way around.
I like the book a lot. It has taught me to be more aware of my surroundings and to analyze their functionality. I realized why it’s the designer’s responsibility if a user can’t walk through a door securely or figure out a device; it’s almost certainly not the user’s fault. People can’t read the designer’s mind to figure out how the product works. How do you know how to handle a door when you walk up to it? You’ve never given it a second thought; you just know and utilize it instinctively. As a result, it is the designer’s obligation to consider how to incorporate the knowledge of how to use it within the product itself. It’s crucial for designers to strike a balance between beauty and utility.
The book provided me with an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of UX design and value the abilities of creating well-designed products that engage with customers. It also discusses user-centered design ideas, user experience best practices, and design thinking. The concepts apply to the design of websites and other interactive systems as well. Even as technology, people, and culture evolve, some fundamentals remain constant. The ideas of discoverability, feedback, and the power of affordances and signifiers, mapping, and conceptual models will always be valid design principles.
Chapter 5 (Human Error? No Bad Design) , Chapter 6 (Design Thinking), Chapter 7 (Design in the world of Business) stood out the most to me as it helped me to overcome some of the biases I had in my mind before reading the book as well as resonated with my classes. In Chapter 5 (Human Error? No Bad Design) emphasizes on asking for 5 Whys when searching for a reason.
“The tendency to stop seeking reasons as soon as a human error has been found is widespread.” This flawed idea results in failure to implement simple procedural changes that can yield big improvements. Natural tendency to blame someone, even oneself, for human error. Designs focus on the requirements of the system and hardware not upon the requirements of the people. Chapter 6 (Design Thinking) highlights never solving the problem you are asked to solve because, invariably, the problem asked to solve is not the real, fundamental, root problem. It is usually a symptom.”We often rush to solve a problem without questioning whether or not we are solving the right problem.HCD (Human-Centered Design) is a method for meeting these demands that focuses on two things: solving the right problem and doing so in a human-centered way.Chapter 7 (Design in the world of Business) talked about a concept called
Featuritis (also known as “feature creep”) occurs when a successful product continues to add new functionalities to the point that it overcomplicates and distorts what was previously a straightforward, elegant, and clear solution. Focusing on and prioritizing areas of strength, as well as extending those capabilities, is a stronger strategy rather than copy and feature-match wholesale. The best products are created by disregarding competition and focusing instead on the genuine demands of the product’s users.
After reading the book I could connect the concepts learnt in class about how desirability, feasibility and usability are important for holistic solutions and most importantly it’s very much needed to figure out are we solving the right problems and validating our biases. Right now the insights from this book are always in my mind when we are prototyping and iterating our app for our project. What is it that our app solves? What is the core identity of our app? How can we make it user friendly to navigate so that the main purpose of the app is served?
