Human and Techologies

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Individual Assignment "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman


Darja Djatsenko
IMKE student

Review

Book The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman


Introduction

In my opinion everyone who designs something that to be used by humans (physical objects to computer programs to conceptual tools or other) have to read this book. It could change their opinion about how their experience and interact have to be connected with physical surroundings, open their eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design.  This book probably could raise expectations about how things “should” be designed.

Main part

Design is a noun or a verb? The most discussed question about this word. There is no concrete answer. Through the book I started to think in terms of both, as in how to design a design. I recognize that for me the design is an act of communication. Even the purely aesthetic design, in which appearance is all, is intended to evoke a response.
Design alone should convey how thing is supposed to work, its intended use and the expected outcomes, and when used it should provide feedback to let the user know that things are working as intended.
As vice president of advanced technology of Apple, Donald Norman helped determine how best to design computers for users. He enjoyed it so much and launched a consulting firm to apply the principles of good design to a variety of products and shared with this information in his book.
Norman developed theories about the psychology and psychopathology of everyday things and actions based on how information is intuited and applied. The book is a fascinating look at how design enables information, and how the same basic design principles can be applied to everything from door knobs to airplane wings. Norman describes the world and the way we interact with it in seven stages of action. We observe the world, evaluate the current state it is in and form a picture of the state we would like it to be in. The book is not just about examples of good or bad design, it is about world and how design interact with human. Author tried to explained though his own experience the main parts of the design in a clear and easy examples. By myself I changed in some cases my mind about the principles of design.

Conclusion

Design is a part of humans daily life and I would definitely suggest read this book to people who would like to change this world in the best way, especially to people who are connecting and thinking about design more that others. I would also recommend to read this book for designers, computer scientists, engineers and anyone who might create something for others to use.
By myself I got the satisfaction of reading this book because I thing that world is design and it is relevant to understand it. 

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