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By Root 2517 0

title to describe the book. I also learned that the word “psychology” caused the book to be shelved in the psychology sections of the stores, which drew readers who cared about people and human relationships rather than objects and our relationships to them. Readers interested in design would never think of looking in the psychology section. I went to bookstores and watched how people browsed. I talked with book buyers and clerks. My editor was correct: I needed to change the word “psychology” to “design.” In titling my book, I had been guilty of the same shortsightedness that leads to all those unusable everyday things! My first choice of title was that of a self-centered designer, choosing the solution that pleased me without considering its impact upon readers. So DOET it became, and DOET it remains in this new edition.

Lessons from DOET

When you have trouble with things—whether it’s figuring out whether to push or pull a door or the arbitrary vagaries of the modern computer and electronics industry—it’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself: blame the designer. It’s the fault of the technology, or, more precisely, of the design.

When we first see an object we have never seen before, how do we know how to use it? How do we manage tens of thousands of objects, many of which we encounter only once? This question propelled the writing of DOET. The answer, I quickly determined, was that the appearance of the device must provide the critical clues required for its proper operation—knowledge has to be both in the head and in the world.

At the time I wrote DOET, this idea was considered strange. Today, however, the concept is more widely accepted. Many in the design community understand that design must convey the essence of a device’s operation; the way it works; the possible actions that can be taken; and, through feedback, just what it is doing at any particular moment. Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.

Although DOET covers numerous topics, three have come to stand out as critical:1. It’s not your fault: If there is anything that has caught the popular fancy, it is this simple idea: when people have trouble with something, it isn’t their fault—it’s the fault of the design. Every week brings yet another letter or e-mail from someone thanking me for delivering them from their feeling of incompetence.

2. Design principles: I make it a rule never to criticize something unless I can offer a solution. DOET contains several important design principles, powerful tools for designers to ensure that their products are understandable and usable. The principles, of course, are explained within the book, but to give you a hint of what you will encounter, here is a short list of the most important. Note that they are all easy to understand, yet powerful.• Conceptual models. The human mind is a wonderful organ of understanding—we are always trying to find meaning in the events around us. One of the greatest frustrations of all is trying to learn how to do something that seems completely arbitrary and capricious. Worse, when we lack understanding, we are apt to err.Consider the thermostat. When some people enter a cold house, they turn the thermostat to a very high temperature in order to reach the desired level more quickly. They do this because of their internal mental model of how the furnace works. The model is sensible and coherent, even if not well thought out. It is also wrong. But how would they know? Although this behavior is wrong for the home, it works for most automobiles—turn the heat or air conditioning up all the way, and when the interior is at the correct temperature, adjust the temperature control again.

To understand how to use things, we need conceptual models of how they work. Home furnaces, air conditioners, and even most household ovens have only two levels of operation: full power or off. Therefore, they are always heating or cooling to the desired temperature as rapidly as possible. In these