This week’s first reading, Emotion and Design: Attractive Things Work Better by Norman, gave me a new perspective on how and when things can work better in different situations than I had thought before. At first, reading the title Attractive Things Work Better made me feel like I would disagree with the reading, since it gave the idea of prioritizing appearance, which does not sound right when trying to create something functional and useful. However, as I read through it, I was impressed by the number of ideas that made me realize things I had not thought of before, especially that we often use things based on how we feel, and those feelings are strongly influenced by design. This idea was clear in the example of the car, where we would prefer to drive it when it looks clean rather than when it looks dirty. It also made me think about how designers should consider the situations the user might be in, so they can adjust the design to create a smoother experience, like the idea of opening a push or pull door when being relaxed versus stressed. It also made me reflect on the things I create in this course, that I should make sure my work functions well, but also has a clear and attractive appearance that supports the user’s experience. It is almost like saying design is not only about physical appearance, but also a psychological aspect of the work.
This week’s second reading, Her Code Got Humans On The Moon and Invented Software Itself by McMillan, was very interesting to me because it was so different from the other readings we have done, including the one above. I was fascinated by how Margaret Hamilton was able to succeed and prove the importance of software and correct programming at a time when it was not fully developed or taken seriously. I was struck by her quote, “When I first got into it, nobody knew what it was that we were doing. It was like the Wild West. There was no course in it. They didn’t teach it,” as it made me realize that they had to create code and commands without references or guidance like we have today. It felt like coding from scratch, which is especially intense considering it was connected to astronauts and people’s lives. I was also inspired by her dedication, especially in the way she worked on preventing errors and thinking through different possible scenarios. This made me connect it to the work we do in our projects, for example when using if-else statements to control different outcomes.
Both readings were very different from each other, but they added a lot to my understanding of this course and my own work. One connection I was able to make was between Hamilton’s focus on error-preventing systems and Norman’s explanation of how people use things differently depending on their situation. For example, in a programmed website or interactive project, if a user is overwhelmed, they might start clicking the wrong things, so error-preventing code could help guide or correct their actions. I feel like these readings encouraged me to try new coding techniques and explore different ideas, while also paying attention to the appearance of my work, since it can affect how it is experienced and used.