Firstly, this was a joy to read. It gives the impression of someone who is both comfortable and fully engaged with their subject. Though only this first chapter is core reading, I intend to read the whole book during this course.
Norman (2013) explains his interest in design from his personal and professional interaction with the designed world. Describing how a friend found themselves ‘trapped’ between two sets of glass doors (due to lack of signifiers) , I recalled an incident where I encountered someone ‘trapped’ in a room due to a similar issue. I recently came across a discussion on Twitter concerning the loud, repeated alarms made by dryers, microwaves etc.to indicate they have completed their work (what was the point and why did it have to be made so unpleasantly) and the triumph of one who announced their pleasure at having disabled the circuitry.
Thought the term natural was used a couple of times, in the case of mapping it was pointed out that culture is important in all aspects of design; that a signifier says where to touch a screen, this only is a signifier so long as you think their is anything to be gained by touching a screen at all (those who pre-date touch-screens will recall when touching a screen was what you absolutely did not do!)
Usefully, he defines terms well, especially important as some of these terms he has borrowed and some have been borrowed by others (e.g. signifiers, affordances).
The design challenge, Norman points out, is in the challenge of well-managed interdisciplinary cooperation, seeing from the point of view of others, to achieve a design that takes account of all aspects: cost, safety, reliability etc. This is a powerful argument against the addition of the culture of design (Cross, 1982) to the existing cultures of art and science. Instead it would suggest that we need to stop building separate cultures altogether and instead base education on a multidisciplinary approach, that looks for the ways of bringing together knowledge and ways of knowing, else we perpetuate the lack of understanding and appreciation and the problems that come from it, that management (however good) cannot mitigate.
References
Cross, N. (1982) ‘Designerly ways of knowing’, Design Studies. (Special Issue Design Education), 3(4), pp. 221–227.
Norman, D. (2013) Chapter 1: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things. In The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition. Boulder: Basic Books.
