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The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

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Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#91

Post by slowhand09 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #36
atoav wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me one lesson was that when we fail to properly use a thing we should blame that thing for its bad design instead of ourselves. I think this is a bit too easy. After all it depends on what problem the thing is solving. E.g. if I think of lab test equipment you failing to use it properly might have nothing to do with the design and everything to do with you not having sufficient knowledge in the given domain. I…

Tufte[0] is a good person to demonstrate that kind of UX. His stuff can be pretty crazy, and often needs training, but, once someone knows how to do something he champions, it's amazing. The example I use, in my life, is Tokyo subway maps[1]. They look crazy complicated; and they are, because it's a complex system. But after we learn it, using them is as natural as turning a door handle. [0] https://www.edwardtufte.c…

I took Tufte's course. London Metro maps is good also. He points out the map is significantly different than reality, but makes the complex seem simple.

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#92

Post by pottertheotter »

bern4444 wrote: post #78

I am always amazed at how poorly designed bathroom sink faucets are. The spout where the water comes out is always so close to the far edge instead of to the middle of the sink. Placing the spout so the water exits in the middle of the sink would be so much nicer. You wouldn't have to lean over, your hands wouldn't be hitting the back of the sink, and you'd have so much more room to wash your hands.

One of my biggest pet peeves. I mention this to my wife just about every time I use a bathroom when we're out to eat.

I stumbled upon the subreddit WTFaucet a while back and, while it isn't exclusive to the issue you highlighted, it brought me a lot of joy.

https://www.reddit.com/r/WTFaucet/

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#93

Post by pottertheotter »

tablespoon wrote: post #88
bern4444 wrote: post #78

I am always amazed at how poorly designed bathroom sink faucets are. The spout where the water comes out is always so close to the far edge instead of to the middle of the sink. Placing the spout so the water exits in the middle of the sink would be so much nicer. You wouldn't have to lean over, your hands wouldn't be hitting the back of the sink, and you'd have so much more room to wash your hands.

> I am always amazed at how poorly designed bathroom sink faucets are. > The spout where the water comes out is always so close to the far edge instead of to the middle of the sink. > Placing the spout so the water exits in the middle of the sink would be so much nicer. You wouldn't have to lean over, your hands wouldn't be hitting the back of the sink, and you'd have so much more room to wash your hands. That would…

The faucet doesn't have to be in the middle of the sink, but it should be designed so that the water stream is not right next to the edge of the sink.

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#94

Post by bombcar »

corrral wrote: post #86
bombcar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can also indicate a process that is (currently) beyond the capabilities of the interface available (thinking the difficulty of programming a VCR when you have four buttons and one LED that can display 88:88 and that's it vs a full touchscreen interface on a phone). Arguably the VCRs did as well as they could - BUT they made the critical mistake of not realizing that programming and setting the clock would be diffi…

The clock was crucial to timed recordings, which were how people recorded TV programs when they weren't around for them before things like TIVO existed. Set a it to record when your program's supposed to start and for X duration, put a blank tape in, go to work, come home and find it's recorded that daytime program you didn't want to miss. If you weren't going to use that feature, yeah, it was pointless and could hav…

Interestingly car radios have the same "how do you set the time" problem, and arguably a clock is more useful in a car anyway - but almost all of them set the time to 12:00 when they get power back. They don't blink.

Which means that if you can't figure out how to set the time, you can just remember to disconnect the battery just before noon, and then reconnect it.

The flashing clock on a VCR is actually an error message because if it lost power/lost time, it won't record correctly until you tell it what time it is.

But if you have no timed recording setup, there's no need to report that error.

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#95

Post by bern4444 »

slowhand09 wrote: post #89
bern4444 wrote: post #78

I am always amazed at how poorly designed bathroom sink faucets are. The spout where the water comes out is always so close to the far edge instead of to the middle of the sink. Placing the spout so the water exits in the middle of the sink would be so much nicer. You wouldn't have to lean over, your hands wouldn't be hitting the back of the sink, and you'd have so much more room to wash your hands.

You do realize... There are many designs, styles, sizes of bathroom sink faucets. Typically the builder or person commissioning the build chooses the sink and the faucet fitures. You can change either...

And yet, every sink I've ever used and seen has this issue...

I agree there should be a better model but I have never seen one.

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#96

Post by WalterBright »

bombcar wrote: post #66
soco wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Faucets? You said FAUCETS? As a hotel hopper (in recess) I should have run a blog of crazy shower faucet designs, and I definitely wouldn't have run out of puzzling examples and nasty (cold or hot) surprises.

I swear every single hotel in the world is in a competition to make the most complicated, impossible to understand faucet. I'm sure if you understand how it works it somehow is more convenient (saves your temperature setting, perhaps) but it often takes me a few minutes to figure out how to get it to work. One even had a "button" that you had to press to "unlock" the dial so you could turn it on, that one almost requ…

In one hotel, I was stuck with cool showers, which were doable but rather unpleasant. On the last day, I discovered that the temp knob could be depressed which enabled it to be turned to hot. Ahh, finally, a hot shower!

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#97

Post by WalterBright »

These kinds of things assume critical importance in the design of an aircraft cockpit.

For example, the lever that controls the landing gear has a little tire for the knob. The flap controls have a knob shaped like a flap. All so you know what the control is without needing to look (or the cockpit is filled with smoke).

The common theme with all these designs is they are driven by accidents. For some strange reason, humans are pretty bad at creating intuitive designs. It's only usage that makes it clear, and it always seems obvious in hindsight.

For example, aviation has standardized phrases for things, to avoid confusion. For decades, the maximum power setting on the engines was "takeoff power". I kid you not. This was fixed after a crash caused by the pilot yelling "take off power" to do a go-round, and the copilot idled the engines. This was in civil aviation. The Air Force had to undergo a crash as well to change "takeoff power".

The lead Boeing cockpit designer of the 757 explained to me that every intuitive cockpit feature was paid for in blood.

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#98

Post by georgeecollins »

I took a class with Donald Norman and did a work study internship with him. At the time I had no idea who he was and wasn't particularly interested in the class. I was working in neuroscience lab at the time and I thought that would be my career direction. He was the head of the Cognitive Science department.

The most amazing thing was the way he taught. It was almost all stories and anecdotes. He didn't start with the theory he started with a problem or a situation, often a case study. He used the example as a way to explain the theory or the issue at hand. Ultimately you did read a lot of research or theoretical papers but because you started from a real world problem it was never boring.

At the time it was just a class that surprised me by being much more interesting than I expected. Ultimately it was about the most useful class I ever took.

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#99

Post by richiezc »

georgeecollins wrote: post #98

I took a class with Donald Norman and did a work study internship with him. At the time I had no idea who he was and wasn't particularly interested in the class. I was working in neuroscience lab at the time and I thought that would be my career direction. He was the head of the Cognitive Science department. The most amazing thing was the way he taught. It was almost all stories and anecdotes. He didn't start with th…

+1

I took HCI from him in undergrad and I had now idea who he was. I found the teaching style engaging but didn't give it much thought until 3 years later when I started working on consumer internet products.

Re: The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes

#100

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

slowhand09 wrote: post #91
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tufte[0] is a good person to demonstrate that kind of UX. His stuff can be pretty crazy, and often needs training, but, once someone knows how to do something he champions, it's amazing. The example I use, in my life, is Tokyo subway maps[1]. They look crazy complicated; and they are, because it's a complex system. But after we learn it, using them is as natural as turning a door handle. [0] https://www.edwardtufte.c…

I took Tufte's course. London Metro maps is good also. He points out the map is significantly different than reality, but makes the complex seem simple.

Did he have the Euclid's Geometry books?
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