Design of Everyday Things - Norman, Don [4]
The confusions foisted upon us by technology are increasing at a faster pace than ever before. Today’s heavy usage of the Internet, cellular telephones, portable music players, and the wide variety of portable, wireless message and e-mail systems shows just how important these technologies have become to our lives. Nonetheless, websites are often unusable, cellular telephones grow ever more complex, and automobile dashboards look like airplane cockpits. The new products impose themselves upon us in the bedroom, in the automobile, while walking down the street. As each new technology emerges, the companies forget the lessons of the past and let engineers build their fanciful creations, driven by marketing insistence on a proliferation of features. As a result, confusion and distractions increase.
Remote control of the home is a popular fantasy among technologists. Why not, they muse, call your home while you are driving and turn on the heat or air conditioner, start filling the bathtub, or make a pot of coffee? Some companies offer products that make it possible to do these things. Why do we need them? Think of how much difficulty the average automobile radio presents to the driver. Now imagine trying to control the various appliances in the home while driving. Ah, the wonders yet before us. I shudder in apprehension.
Design is a complex endeavor, covering many disciplines. Engineers design bridges and dams, electronic circuits, and new forms of materials. The term “design” is used to refer to fashion, buildings, interior decorating, and landscaping. Many designers are artists, emphasizing aesthetics and pleasure. Others are concerned about cost. All in all, many different disciplines are involved in developing the many products we use. Although this book emphasizes one major aspect—how well the design fits the needs of the people who use it—this is only one of a multitude of dimensions that must be considered. All are important. This is what makes design such a challenging and rewarding discipline: it grapples with the need to accommodate apparently conflicting requirements.
Appropriate, human-centered design requires that all the considerations be addressed from the very beginning, with each of the relevant design disciplines working together as a team. Most design is intended to be used by people, so the needs and requirements of people ought to be driving much of the work throughout the entire process. In this book, I concentrate on one component: making things that are understandable and usable. I emphasize this one dimension because it has been so long neglected. It is time to bring it to its rightful place in the development process. This does not mean that usability takes precedence over everything else: all great designs have an appropriate balance and harmony of aesthetic beauty, reliability and safety, usability, cost, and functionality.
There is no need to sacrifice beauty for usability or, for that matter, usability for beauty. No need to sacrifice cost or function, time to manufacture, or sales. It is possible to create things that are both creative and usable, both pleasurable and completely workable. Art and beauty play essential roles in our lives. Good designs will have it all—aesthetic pleasure, art, creativity—and at the same time be usable, workable, and enjoyable.
Technology Changes Rapidly; People Change Slowly
Although significant time has passed since the writing of this book, surprisingly little needs to be changed. Why? Because the emphasis is on people, on how we, as human beings, interact with the physical objects in the world. This interaction is governed by our biology, psychology, society, and culture. Human biology and