THE DESIGN OF EVERYDAY THINGS - Highlights, questions for myself

DESIGN_QUESTIONS.md

THE DESIGN OF EVERYDAY THINGS

Second round - how can I apply the book to my work? Questions for myself

1. THE PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY THINGS

• Human-Centered Design
  • When something is wrong, the service highlight the issue
    • User friendly error message - what to do to recover the operation - Can user understand the error without fear?
    • Possibility of undo - Can user undo the operation?
• Affordance
  • Does it really look like a button? (Controllable?)
  • Does it tell what it is by its appearance?
• Signifiers
  • Supports affordance by symbols, signs, marks, text
  • Does it explain itself in the UI?
  • Do people have problem understanding what it is?
• Mapping
  • Is the design common?
  • Is the design template common?
• Feedback
  • Do we really tell it's loading?
  • Do we really tell the operation worked?
• The design challenge
  • Products that enhance lives and add to our pleasure and enjoyment

2. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EVERYDAY ACTIONS

Event-Driven bahaviour

e.g., The person is reading a recipe book for cooking dinner. The light is getting dimmer and dimmer.

Reading is not the high-level goal. Ask "Why is that the goal" for each goal.

The hierarchy of goals is: satisfy hunger; eat; cook; read cookbook; get more light.

What is user's high-level goal? Can the system help achieving the goal?

Does the design make the seven stages of action clear?

• The seven stages of action
  1. Goal
  • What do I want to accomplish?
  2. Plan
  • What are the alternative action sequences?
  3. Specify
  • What action can I do now?
  4. Perform
  • How do I do it?
  5. Perceive
  • What happened?
  6. Interpret
  • What does it mean?
  7. Compare
  • Is this okay? Have I accomplished my goal?

3. KNOWLEDGE IN THE HEAD AND IN THE WORLD

• Do you have a meaningful mapping?
  • Best mapping: Controls area mounted directly on the item to be controlled
  • Second-best mapping: Controls are as close as possible to the object to be controlled
  • Third-best mapping: Controls are arranged in the same spatial configuration as the objects to be controlled

4. KNOWING WHAT TO DO: CONSTRAINTS, DISCOVERABILITY, AND FEEDBACK

• Do you design by thinking of affordances, signifiers, and constraints?
  • Applying Affordances, Signifiers, and Constraints to Everyday Objects
    • Constraints That Force the Desired Behaviour
      • Interlocks : Oven's door does not open unless it's turned off. (dead man's switch) You have to keep pressing the button
      • Lock-ins : The dialog asking if you want to save when you try to exist the app. Adobe products... Once they become standard, nobody leaves
      • Lockouts : The gate at the ground floor to prevent people going down when they are panicked

5. HUMAN ERROR? NO, BAD DESIGN

• Do I do root cause analysis?
  • Five Whys
  • Potential causes
    • Mistakes
      • Rule-based mistakes
      • Knowledge-based mistakes
      • Memory-lapse mistakes
    • Social and Institutional Pressures
• Do I prevent the errors?
  • Jidoka, andon, poka-yoke
  • Designing for Error
    • Put the knowledge required to operate the technology in the world
    • Use the power of natural and artificial constraints: physical, logical, semantic, and cultural
    • Bridge the two gulfs, the Gulf of Execution and the Gulf of Evaluation

6. DESIGN THINKING

The problem I am asked to solve is not the real, fundamental, root problem

• How do you know you solved the correct problem?
• Where do you think the problems come from?
• Do I solve the correct problem?
  • Double-Diamond Model of Design
  • The Human-Centered Design
• Do we look for human needs?

7. DESIGN IN THE WORLD OF BUSINESS

• Do I take 'customer obsessed' approach?