Reference:
The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
1988 Basic Books
Summary:
On any given day, people must rely on cues from the world in order to accomplish their tasks. This reliance stems from the fallibility of memory. Our brains will often learn just enough information to complete a task in the correct context, but will fail when trying to describe it in an alternitive setting. There is simply too much information in the world for the brain to remember all of it, so steps must be taken in order to increase what is retained. Arbitrary knowledge is the most difficult to remember, but it becomes increasingly easier to recall when someone has a good mental model or in depth understanding of said knowledge.
Discussion:
This chapter really made me thing of all the things I do and see that I wouldn't be able to accurately describe in a non-contextual setting. For example, I use the keyboard upon which I am typing every day, but if asked for the location of the scroll lock key I would be clueless, not to mention skeptical about the existence of such a key. To continue with the keyboard theme, there are passwords that I type out several times a day with absolutely no trouble, yet when using a virtual keyboard I find myself having to think hard about the correct sequence of characters. Since there is so much information we have to learn in our lifetimes, I am all for devices with intuitively mapped controls. At the very least, it's one less thing I have to remember.
No comments:
Post a Comment