Book Reading 1: Design of Everyday Things

Book Talk:
I found this book to be interesting. The book go overs the studies of basically good design. Good design is consisted of many defining qualities. Some of the most obvious and apparent qualities are things such as simplicity when it come to design. The book has quite a few stories and examples from around the '80s that while somewhat comical, are very important and convey the main points of good design and point out examples of bad design as well. Many of the devices that were talked about in the book have been severally upgraded or no longer commonly exist. It's interesting to see the struggles and problems in good design in early electronics and devices. I'm curious as to how the book where to turn out if it had been written in modern time. Nowadays, we have LCD screens telling us the state of a device or function. We have smaller electronics that allow more room for controls. The smaller devices still pose a good design problem in figuring out just how small to create a device and if adding another control is worth the cost of size in a device. Some devices today have only a couple controls with far too many functions and actions. In the end, the book has given me a little more insight into good design. With this new-found knowledge, I can create things such as programs and interfaces that will become more user-friendly.

Chapter 1 Talk:
Chapter 1 discussed some of the most common problems with good design. The story of the fellow trapped between a set of doors is interesting. The time spent on aesthetics has caused some people some grief in using such a simple device such as a door. This unfortunately causes quite a lot of embarrassment for the people who fail to interpret the use of the door despite having no clues as to how to open the doors.

Chapter 2 Talk:
The most interesting point made in this chapter for me was the concept of Learned Helplessness. Learned helplessness is where a person feels helpless in performing a task if they are unable to complete it (often times if the user tries multiple times). This has been noticed quite a lot by me. I see professors who fail to understand how to properly use the teaching equipment on an almost regularly basis. Often times they blame themselves and claim they are dumb when it comes to computers. They believe they are technologically challenged. This always made me cringe a little because I never liked it when someone would beat themselves up for not knowing how to use the equipment.

Chapter 3 Talk:
The subsections on memory were an interesting read. I enjoyed learning about the differences in memory and how some people try to recall certain information. The use of notes has been a common choice for me personally.

Chapter 4 Talk:
I enjoyed the example of physical constraints and the Lego motorcycle. I grew up playing with Lego all the time. I never looked at how good of a design the Lego bricks are. I obviously knew that certain bricks can only fit certain ways with other bricks but I never fully appreciated the beauty of the design philosophy that Lego used. People would soon find out that if there were 2 incompatible bricks or a way that was incompatible, it would either be easily noticeable and avoided or people would find out by trying to combine the bricks and noticing an unsecured connection or combination of bricks.

Chapter 5 Talk:
 The difference in slips and mistakes is quite an interesting read. Often times I have caught myself performing a step wrong and my peers would make fun of me for it. I would be embarrassed and it would unfortunately stick with me all day. I would vow that I would never make the same "mistake" again. However, as it turns out, slips are most common in a skilled procedure or protocol for a person. The procedure becomes so routine that it becomes an almost subconscious task and if a error is made, it will often go unnoticed. The true definition of a mistake is by having a wrong goal set but performing the steps correctly.

Chapter 6 Talk:
The problem of designers focusing too much on aesthetics is a pretty big deal. Most designers do not get the recognition they deserve simply because something is not pretty enough, despite the functionality it may have. Designers with few visible elements and few "breaks" in the design are typically praised for their work. This causes problems however in use of the device and maintenance. A control may not be noticeable enough and may not be recognized by a large number of users. This can cause frustrations and problems in the device usage.

Chapter 7 Talk:
 Ah, designing for users. This was an interesting chapter since it sort of struck a chord with me due to my job. I see a wide array of professors. Some have trouble with the equipment, others don't. It's both fascinating and frustrating to see a professor who has studies years in the field of say Mathematics or Physics and can't figure out how to turn on the projector. Often times there are correlation between what professors teach and how well they know how to use the equipment. Many times they will make recommendations on how the equipment should behave and perform. Unfortunately  there are far too many different approaches. We have to standardize across the campus (the best we can) so professors don't have to learn about 20 different systems in order for them to use the equipment.

5 Examples of Good Design:

1. I have always liked the way a USB cable looked and the port as well. There is a noticeable click when plugging in a USB cable to let people know that it is connected. Also, the end of the cable is wide and sturdy, making it difficult to bend the end (unlike my power cable)

2. My trucks lights are set to a very interesting setting. This setting auto-detects the time of day it is and will turn on or off the lights accordingly without having to adjust it. It can also go back to ye-old standard manual switch for the lights

3. My headset while large is comfortable and allows for the microphone to be on either side without having to remove and re-attach it.

4. My laptops keyboard boasts a numpad with a button that automatically launches the Windows Calculator. This is a very handy feature since I perform simple calculations quite often on my laptop.

5. Again, talking about my laptop (I really do love it) The fan design is good. The laptops fans face the back, not the sides like a lot of other laptops I see. The hot air will push away from the laptop and away from any peripheral devices or body parts. The fans are also easy to get to for cleaning and maintenance.

5 Examples of Bad Design:

1. My truck unlocks the doors as soon as I put it in park. Now this is convent for most situations but the fear of someone trying to hijack or rob me from my truck has caused me to dislike this feature.

2. The auto-rotate feature is nice for most situations on my phone, however it's annoying whenever I am lying in bed and the image rotates when I do not want it too. I'm sure there is a setting somewhere to disable it but if there is, they put the option in an obscure menu somewhere because I can't find it.

3. Another problem with my phone is the alarm clock app. Whenever I make a new alarm, it will does not auto delete the alarm, it only "disables" it. This causes massive lists of obscure times for alarms that I must sift through and delete.

4. Skype not actually closing when hitting the X button. This only causes the application to go to the system tray. You have to either Sign-out or Quit the application.

5. I managed to come across an abandoned Ipod Nano. While I'm not much of an Apple product user, I thought, hey a free mp3 player. When I examined it, I was shocked that there was only one port which was obviously used for headphones. I spent the next half-hour trying to figure out on my own how in the world it connected to a computer before looking it up. Turns out there's a way to transfer songs onto the device through the headphone port. Weird.