The Situations that Lead to Forming of Bad Designs of the Product - Essay Example

The Design of Every Day Things due: The main emphasis of the book: Designs of everyday things by Norman, is the necessity of developing products that meet both the needs and capabilities of individuals. As written by Norman (2013), this book shares a similar focus with the discipline of human-centered design (p. 218). Their shared interest is ensuring the final products always to meet individual desires, needs and also capabilities. The book reveals that designs are motivated by various concerns. These include technology, competitive pressure and even aesthetics. This book explains to us that our inability to perform simple duties such as opening doors or switching on lights does not originate from us and we are not incompetent but rather it is because the design of the product we are using does not meet human needs and also does not take into consideration principles of cognitive psychology. This book also indicates the need for developing good designs and illustrates simple steps that can be followed to achieve this. It also highlights and discusses the situations that lead to forming of bad designs. Keywords: Technology, design, competitive pressure, featuritis, conceptual model Chapter 1 Simple things that we use daily in our lives that are perceived to be very easy to use have now proved to be quite complicated as technology advances. An example that the author gives in the book is that of a door. The different designs that have been used in different types of modern day door have made it difficult for the author to use them. The difficulties that the author experience with the door have become popular making doors which often cause confusion to be referred to as "Norman doors" the authors name. Some designs require one to push or pull the door in a given direction while for others one needs to slide the door so as to be able to open it. The first chapter of the book influences designing positively. The author talks of important but simple aspects of design that a designer needs always to put into consideration for his or her design to be effective. Designed products need to be very safe, efficient and should satisfy individuals when it comes to actual usage. The author talks about two crucial attributes of a good design. These are discoverability and understanding. The design made should enable the user to determine what actions are doable and where and how the user can carry them out; that explains discoverability. In understanding, the user of the product should be capable of knowing what it is all about and how it is meant to be used. While designing their products designers should aim for not only beauty, but also utility, which is imperative in each and every design. The author gives an example of how his friend could not find his way out in a European post office because of the design of the door The designer did not put into consideration discoverability. Which is very essential for use of the product but rather he only focused on the beauty. The authors friend could not determine how to operate the door resulting to him being trapped. The author also points out that for complex devices there is a need for a manual or the user to be given instructions so that it would be able to attain discoverability and understanding. If the user understands the operation of a given machine then, this facilitates human-machine interaction (p. 25). Lack of understanding, usually, results to human-interaction deficiency. When some designers of a given product decide on holding down costs in the process of creating a product, it may also result to deficiency in human-machine interaction. The new designs that come up increase in complexity constantly and this causes individuals to get frustrated because they continually have to update their products, getting the latest designs and maintaining them. Designs need to be human-centered. Human-centered designs put individual needs behavior and capabilities first. For a good design to be accomplished, it is imperative to comprehend both technology and psychology. Good communication will also lead to developing of a good design. The communication is between the machine and the person. The machine should communicate to the user what are doable, details on what is happening, and the possibility of something happening. The importance of communication is evident when actions go wrong. The author also talks about how great designers develop pleasurable experiences. As written by Norman (2013), to achieve good design there is a need for designers to have a mind cognition and emotion (p. 29). An example given by the author is that when our devices perform activities in a weird way, when one has understanding of the product they would not be confused because they know what actions to take. Discoverability of a good design is brought about by suitable application of important psychological concepts which are five. They include affordances, constraints, mapping, signifiers and feedback which are all discussed in the book (Norman, 2013).Great designs also require great designers and great management. Chapter 2 The new designs that come up increase in complexity constantly and this causes individuals work with machines, how one can be able to identify machines which are not functioning properly and what action to take when this happens. The author points out that a designers role is to help Individuals Bridge the gulf of execution and that of evaluation. In the gulf of execution, a user tries to determine how a given device operates while that of evaluation a reader is focused on determining what happens after they perform their action. When a user performs an action the next step that is expected to take place is the evaluation of the results; how or she will check on whether their goal has been accomplished. This two create the two parts of an action, and that is executing snd evaluating (Norman, 2013:59). The author also talks of seven steps of an action. The stages are grouped respectively: goals, three meant for execution; planning of the action, specifying and performing and three meant for evaluation; perceiving, interpreting and comparing. The seven steps of an action have been discussed by Norman (2013) and have proved to be very useful in designing interaction (p. 61) The seven stages of actions discussed in the book can also be easily linked with three distinct levels of processing (Norman, 2013). They include reflective, behavioral and visceral. In this chapter, the writer also talks about conceptual model. Conceptual model facilitates discoverability and also evaluation. Chapter 3 As written by Norman (2013), the knowledge that we have in our mind should be combined with the knowledge in the world. This is because none of the will is adequate without the other (p. 75). The author starts this chapter by narrating how a friend of his lent him his car. The friend left a note for him that had instructions on how to remove the car keys from the ignition. Which was an action that could only be done when the car is in reverse and if not the car key will remain stuck in the ignition. The author also talks about how knowledge is in the world and that individuals only need to recall enough knowledge so that they can perform their duties. Example being, typing work on a computer. Despite the fact that a lot of knowledge is in our environment we are only required to learn very little. This explains why individuals are able to function properly in their environment, but they are still not able to delineate what they do. Individuals are capable of functioning by employing two varieties of knowledge: knowledge of and knowledge how (Norman, 2013). Knowledge of is described by psychologist as declarative knowledge. This is because it incorporates knowledge of rules and facts. Psychologists describe the knowledge of how as procedural knowledge. In this chapter, the writer also points out that knowledge is in our heads. The two types of knowledge, in our head and environment assist designers in creating good designs Chapter 4 In chapter three, the author talks about knowledge in the world and knowledge in our head. This two influences design positively by helping individuals in determining how to operate a device that is very new to them, and they are only encountering it for the very first time. In such occurrences, the author claims that one only needs to combine knowledge in the head and that in the world. The worlds knowledge entails: perceived affordances, and the signifiers, mapping between sections that seem to be controls or areas to manipulate and the after effect actions and physical constraints which suppress what can be achieved whereas knowledge that is in the head entails conceptual models; semantic, logical and cultural. According to Norman (2013) constraints on ones behavior and also what the author refers to as analogies found between a prevailing situation and former experiences dealing with other occurrences (p.142). Chapter 5 Having a bad design can result to accidents. In this chapter, the author discusses industrial accidents and how it is assumed that the accidents are caused by human incompetence but in real sense they are actually caused by design problems. The percentage of industrial accidents which are blamed on human error is at 75 to 95 percent and this high value is what Norman uses to explain that it is very unlikely for this high number of people to be incompetent. The author gives crucial information for designs. Designers understand physical limitations very well while misunderstanding mental limitation. The author asserts that we need to deal with every failure in a similar manner; that is finding the main cause and redesigning the system so as to avert future problems. Errors occur because of various reasons, and interruption is deemed by the writer to be an action that causes a lot of errors. According to Norman (2013) what makes this even worse is because some designs and procedure require complete dedication, and it is very hard for one to go back to performing an operation after interruption (Norman, 2013: 163). Peoples attitude regarding errors is what also contributes to errors happening so frequently. The author gives an example of committees which are usually formed in cases where accidents occur so as to determine the main cause and usually it is people who are blamed and not systems (p. 163). Some of the suggestions given by the writer in this chapter is: Root cause analysis- this involves investigation of an accident until one gets one main cause. Accidents, usually, do not have one cause hence making this process very difficult. Another hindrance to root cause analysis is the fact that the process is, usually, stopped the moment human error us detected. The author also talks of deliberate violations where human error is not to blame, but it is people just taking risks. Errors are classified into two categories: Slips and mistakes. Slips take place in scenarios where ones goal is correct, but the needed actions are not performed properly whereas mistakes take place in situations where the goal is incorrect. The two types of errors can also be distinguished by using underlying causes. Memory lapse results to either mistakes or slips. Slips are action based while mistakes are rule-based and knowledge-based. Chapter 6 In this chapter, the writer discusses how one should not solve a problem without questioning it first. For one to be considered as a good designer one should never begin by first seeking ways of solving the problem that is presented to them. One should start by striving to comprehend what the true issues are. As written by Norman (2013), good designers do not converge on finding a solution, but they diverge, they examine individuals what they seek to accomplish and this results to generating more ideas (p. 218). Designers, usually, begin by questioning the problem presented to them. They are expected to first elaborate on the space of likely solutions, and this is what the author explains as the divergence phase. The final step of the solution phase requires them to converge on a suggested solution. According to Norman (2013) this double diverge-converge pattern is what is referred to as the Double Diamond Design Process Model. (p. 220). The design process is categorized into four stages: for divergence it entails discovering and defining and for convergence phase it entails developing and delivering. The double diamond delineates the phase of design: determining the correct problem and meeting human needs. Human-centered design process happens during the double diamond diverge-converge process. The four various actions of human-centered design process include observation, idea generation, prototyping and testing. As written by Norman (2013) the four actions are iterated; this means that they are done repeatedly and in every cycle one gains more knowledge and gets closer to the required solution (p. 222). In this chapter, the author also mentions design and marketing which are two essential components of product development group. Chapter 7 Our world realities pose severe limitations on products design. These realities include competition, costs, and even schedules. Conflicting needs arise from various source, and they are all warrantable, and it is vital for their solutions to be met hence all those involved need to compromise (Norman, 2013). In our contemporary world, manufacturers are constantly competing with each other. These competitive forces have a huge impact on the design. As written by Norman (2013) manufacturer can compete through three distinct ways: features, quality and price (p. 259). Price is the most important followed by features and lastly the quality. This is unfortunate since in design quality should be given the highest importance. Speed is also another competitive force that influences the design of a product. Companies tend to compete on who will get their products first in the market. This, therefore, results to products having inferior designs that do not meet human needs. In this chapter, the author also discusses "featuritis" and refers to it as a deadly temptation. Featuritis is a disease that cannot be prevented. He explains it by giving an example of him assuming that the design of a product follows each and event design principle, therefore, overcoming individual problems and fulfilling certain useful needs. The design is a very beautiful and easy to comprehend. As the product becomes successful with everyone buying it, this will result to creeping featurism. The factors that the author highlights as the causes of this disease are : current customers appreciating the product but wanting more features, functions and capability, the companies competing with them to also add more features, and finally market saturation- this is where all individuals who need the product already purchased it. In this chapter, the author also explains on the time that is needed to transform an idea into a product and the time needed to make your product a lasting success. Reference Norman, D. (2013). The Designs of Everyday things. New York: Basic books. Read More