Book Reading #43 - Things That Make Us Smart

Reference:
Things That Make Us Smart
Donald A. Norman
1993 Basic Books

Summary:
Ch. 1 - The human brain is capable of many things, but in the end it is limited.  Fortunately, people have the ability to create new technologies that make us smarter and more able to accomplish greater things.  Unfortunately, each new technology has unforseen effects on society, not always for the better.  As it stands, peple are expected to conform and adapt to each new technology.  Norman argues that it should be the technology that conforms to human nature.

Ch. 2 - Experiencial cognition occurs when environmental data leads to reactive actions.  This is expert behavior done without conscious thought.  Reflective cognition occurs when data is stored, compared, and analyzed to form new ideas and plans.  Tools meant to aid these types of cognition ideally follow certain guidelines.  Experiential tools should not require reflective analysis, and reflective tools should have as much information visible to the user as possible.  To support these cognitions, there are three types of learning.  Accretion is the accumulation of facts, tuning is the phase between behaving as a novice and behaving as an expert, and restructuring is forming the correct conceptual structure.
Discussion:
Ch. 1 - Norman has some good points, but there were times that I felt like I was reading another of design books.  Technologies should be more accessible to the layman, but oftentimes products have only a limited number of ways that they can be presented, and they are not always intuitive.

Ch. 2 - While I felt this chapter got a bit wordy, it was worth it for the payoff at the end.  I would love to see learning become a more engrossing, captivating activity, but I don't know how it could be implemented.  How does one make a triple integral entertaining?  How do you make the history of the Arthur administration mesmerizing?  How do you make sure that people know the right things are the right time?  I don't have an answer at this moment, but it is something to ponder.