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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

#71

Post by klysm »

tapanjk wrote: post #45
micheljansen wrote: post #12

Warning: this book leaves some permanent imprints in your mind that will forever cause you to be annoyed at badly designed doors and other things.

True that. I deal with this by applying the Robustness principle [1] where possible: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others." In other words, be forgiving of bad design while setting a high standard for what I do. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robustness_principle

I'm not sure this is the intent of the robustness principle. I think being 'robust' against bad design would have more to do with the design itself - not your opinion of the designer.

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

#72

Post by bluGill »

the_af wrote: post #56
VieEnCode wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly suspect that many awards in the legal industry work in this way also.

Surely I'm naive, but I realized just a few years ago that all awards of the kind "best place to work 2022" and such are all paid for, nobody "wins" a real competition. Your workplace pays the ranking company and is advised on how to improve some made up stats and after a while it "wins" an "award" within the small subset of companies that paid for that service. By "realized this" I really mean "I was shown this real…

How would you even grade such a thing? I can't think of any objective way to grade best place to work. I work where we get free soda - I've been here for 10 years and still haven't used it, so for me this doesn't make it great. I have a sit-stand desk, I'm one of the few people who use the buttons to switch every day, so for me this is great, but for most it is a muh thing. There are ping-pong tables in some offices. There are bike racks and showers in some. to me the best part of going to the office is the people - how do you rate that when what people like in each other is different.

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

#73

Post by lazybreather »

micheljansen wrote: post #12

Warning: this book leaves some permanent imprints in your mind that will forever cause you to be annoyed at badly designed doors and other things.

Absolutely not. Atleast not with everything all the time. I love how the front camera on my phone is not concentric to the notch. How my table has uneven legs (I place a wooden piece to adjust). How the edge of my door is not aligned with the frame. How some of my t-shirts have slightly uneven sleeves.

For me, imperfections make them personal. I am repelled by people ('designers' ;)) looking at everything to find faults and point them out with pride. Tells me they never made a thing with bare hands all their life.

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

#75

Post by jonah »

gattilorenz wrote: post #62
jaclaz wrote: post #51

Fun fact, for some reasons it had the title translated in Italian as "La caffettiera del masochista" (The masochist's coffee pot) which is a great textual description of the cover image, moving "the psychology of everyday things" to a sub-title. https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6SC0QO0kVZI/YAyILg6A43I/AAAAAAAAV...

Additional fun fact: the Italian subtitle is not "the psychology of everyday things" (which in itself is different from the original, since that one mentions "design") but "the psychopathology of everyday things", which is a reference to Freud's "the psychopatology of everyday life"

Actually, the original title was "the psychology of everyday things", but he changed it to "design" in subsequent editions/printings because he felt it was clearer more to the point.[1]

[1] The book was originally published in 1988 with the title The Psychology of Everyday Things. Norman said his academic peers liked that title, but believed the new title better conveyed the content of the book and better attracted interested readers. It is often referred to by the initialisms POET and DOET. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things

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

#76

Post by AnotherGoodName »

rwmj wrote: post #35
kriro wrote: post #30

Well the reality of industrial designers is quite interesting. I have a good friend who is doing this (his own small studio) and as someone with a software background the processes are mind boggling. The politics involved are amazing. Weeks of debating color choices. Back and forth between departments (including the realization at a couple of month in that production costs would be through the roof...something mentio…

I used to work for a mortgage broker, and there was a "Best Mortgage Broker of 200x Award" that basically rotated each year around the participating companies.

There is a limit to how low you can put the bar to these paid awards though.

There used to be a heart foundation tick on every second item of food in Australia. It was a paid award with a low bar. The award died when they started putting the tick on boxes of McDonald's chicken nuggets. Everyone immediately caught on that it was bullshit after that and the tick was seen as a laughing stock. The tick is no longer a thing at all since no one wanted their products to be seen in the same category as a McNugget.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2015-12-11/heart-tick-ret...

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

#77

Post by the_af »

bluGill wrote: post #72
the_af wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely I'm naive, but I realized just a few years ago that all awards of the kind "best place to work 2022" and such are all paid for, nobody "wins" a real competition. Your workplace pays the ranking company and is advised on how to improve some made up stats and after a while it "wins" an "award" within the small subset of companies that paid for that service. By "realized this" I really mean "I was shown this real…

How would you even grade such a thing? I can't think of any objective way to grade best place to work. I work where we get free soda - I've been here for 10 years and still haven't used it, so for me this doesn't make it great. I have a sit-stand desk, I'm one of the few people who use the buttons to switch every day, so for me this is great, but for most it is a muh thing. There are ping-pong tables in some offices.…

They tend to mention generic things like "great culture", "career plans", "managers who listen", "transparency".

You are absolutely right, it's all fluffy and intangible. I mean, it's all obviously good, and also every company says this about themselves. Whoever heard of a company advertising "toxic culture", "you'll never get a promotion", and "nobody knows anything about the company's health until it's bankrupt"?

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

#78

Post by bern4444 »

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.

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

#79

Post by daniel_reetz »

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.

Consider that this might block uses where another object (or a baby or body part) goes in the sink.

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

#80

Post by nevir »

daniel_reetz wrote: post #79
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.

Consider that this might block uses where another object (or a baby or body part) goes in the sink.

Sinks are such a great example of what seems like a device with deceptively simple requirements for its design – but turns out to have so much complexity.
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