Week 8 Response

While reading the articles, it was challenging to find a link between the ideas due to the different design contexts discussed: Norman’s focus on emotional interaction with design and objects, versus McMillan’s article on Margaret Hamilton’s significant contributions to the Apollo mission. However, both narratives highlight the importance of innovative thinking and emotional engagement in creating technologies that are not only functional but also meaningful and intuitive for users. Adding to this, the concept discussed earlier in the semester, that design should be self-explanatory, resonates here. For example, Norman might argue that a well-designed object or interface naturally guides the user on how to interact with it, reducing the need for extensive instructions or training. Hamilton’s software, by being robust and error-tolerant, exemplifies this principle on a technical scale, ensuring astronauts could rely on it under the most extreme conditions without needing to understand its complexities.

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