Book Reading #1: Chapter 1

The Design of Everyday Things

By: Donald A. Norman

Chapter 1

The way Dr. Norman explains the basic principles of making user friendly designs is so incredibly simple that it is a wonder why they have not been made standard long ago.  He goes on later to explain why that is, but when he was explaining the components of a good intuitive design I thought it was mind melting how obvious they were. I have come in contact with glass doors like the ones his friend got stuck in many times. I always got a sense of confusion when approaching them and had to really think about how to open them so as to not look silly.  At first, like Dr. Norman said the common response was, I felt embarrassed that I had to put so much thought into just opening a door. After encountering the doors enough times, I began to develop an immature idea along the lines of Dr. Norman's visual component of design as to why the doors were so terrible. If I can't see the hinges then there is no sure way of knowing which side is the right side to push or pull.  This is a reason I chose to take this course. I do not want to design a door that makes people feel stupid by requiring more thought than it should. Over processing a user is inefficient and bad for business.