Chapter 6: Design Thinking

After reading Chapter 6: Design Thinking from the book “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman I realized how much thought goes into all of these designs. I think a lot of what Don Norman talked about in this chapter are ideas that I thought about when looking at these designs. What Don does that makes the chapter interesting is go in depth with the ideas and reasoning behind the design.

Activity-Centered versus Human-Centered design was an interesting part of the chapter because it is something that I haven’t thought too much about. To have a product that succeeds around the world you are more likely to have a Activity-Centered design to your creation. Focusing your design on the activity will better accommodate a large mass of people because the activity stays the same. If you focus too much on the human you can find too many differences around the world and the design will not be able to accommodate as many people as needed.

Another interesting topic that Don went over was why people make things deliberately different. Some of the reasons that connected with me were security systems, safes, higher doorknobs, and medicine bottles. All of these are made to protect people by making the design different and more difficult. I looked at my phone after reading this and put in my password. This was an example of a design that makes getting in the phone more difficult but protects your phone from people who want to get in it.

Don Norman’s chapter Design Thinking was an interesting way to explain how people design the way they do. The designs and examples he chose were relatable and interesting. Overall I was able to progress my own ability to design by reading this section of the book.