When I find a door that doesn’t work or a machine acting strangely, I often joke with my mom that maybe the person who made it learned everything online. I really liked how this text talks about the hidden problems with everyday things, how we use machines, and why it’s important to make technology that works well with people, not the other way around.
In fact, this text got me thinking about making things we use every day easier for everyone. For example, let’s talk about SIRI. I get annoyed that I have to change my way of speaking just to make it understand me. I think it should understand English no matter how I speak it. And if I struggle with this, I can imagine how tough it must be for someone with a speech problem. SIRI is supposed to help us, but it doesn’t always do a good job.
When we make machines and stuff, it’s not just about how they look or how fancy they are. We learned this from what happened at Three Mile Island. At first, they blamed the people working there for the problems, saying it was their fault. But then, Don Norman and other experts looked into it more and found that it was also because the machines were hard to understand and use.
Personally, I find it interesting how Don Norman changed from being an engineer who cared mostly about technical stuff to someone who saw how important it is to understand how people think and act when designing things. His journey is really fascinating.