Aisha Response – Design Of Everyday Things

In this reading, Don Norman emphasizes the importance of a good design: discoverability and understandability. Is a design really good if users can’t comprehend it? Let’s imagine a swinging door; it has no signs to indicate whether users should push or pull and has big large handles. This creates frustration for the users as they have no idea whether they should push or pull them. Thus, they are not able to discover was actions should be used leading to a lack of understanding of what to do with the door. However, a good design would have a sign clearly indicating whether users should push or pull, helping them discover the action they should take, and leading to them understanding whether they should push or pull. This is also true for light switches. If a room has multiple complex light switches users could be confused and frustrated as to which switch corresponds to which light. Designers should focus on the psychological needs of humans when building something to decrease frustration and increase satisfaction. There are five psychological concepts: Affordances(cues that users can pick up), Signifiers (determine where the action will take place), Mapping (grouping and proximity), Feedback, and Constraints (Limitations). Conceptual Models are simplified explanations of how something works in users’ minds. We recall this information when interacting with different things. Overall, I agree with what Don Norman is stating in this text. Although a good design should look good it doesn’t only rely on that.  A good design means that users can comprehend it easily making life easier for them. I’d rather have a simple easy object than a complex-looking object with a lack of clarity

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