TEC154 2010S, Class 24: Human Factors (3) Overview: * A Challenge: Summarize and Exemplify Norman. * Reference. Admin: * Reading for after break: Distributed in class * Rothschild: From Sex to Gender in the History of Technology * McGaw: No Passive Victims, No Separate Spheres: A Feminist Perspective on Technologies History * Grading rubric for readings. * Four point scale. * Check (no feedback): 3. * Check minus: 2. * Minus: 1. * Missing: 0. * Check plus: 5. * Plus: 6. * Have a great break! --- A challenge to the class: Identify the ten most important points in Norman and give an example (not from Norman) that illustrates each of those points. --- Reference to help in your discussions: Chapter One: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things * You Would Need an Engineering Degre to Figure This Out (1) * The Frustration of Everyday Life (2) * The Psychology of Everyday Things (8) + Affordances (9) + Twenty Thousdand Everyday THings (11) + Conceptual Models (12) * Principles of Design for Understanding and Usability (13) + Provide a Good Conceptual Model (13) + Make Things Visible (17) + The Principle of Mapping (23) + The Principle of Feedback (27) * Pity The Poor Designer (28) * The Paradox of Technology (29) Chapter Two: The Psychology of Everyday Actions (34) * Falsely Blaming Yourself (34) * Misconceptions of Everyday Life (36) + Aristotle's Naive Physics (36) + People as Explanatory Creatures (38) * Blaming the Wrong Cause (39) + Learned Helplessness (42) + Taught Helplessness (42) * The Nature of Human Thought and Explanation (43) * How People Do Things: The Seven States of Action (45) * The Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation (49) + The Gulf of Execution (51) + The Gulf of Evaluation (51) * The Seven Stages of Action as Design Aids (52) Chapter Three: Knowledge in the Head and in the World (54) * Precise Behavior from Imprecise Knowledge (56) + Information is in the World (56) + Great Precision is Not Required (58) + The Power of Constraints (60) * Memory is Knowledge in the Head (62) + The Conspiracy Against Memory (63) + The Structure of Memory (66) - Memory for Arbitrary Things (67) - Memory for Meaningful Relationships (68) - Memory Through Explanation (70) * Memory is Also Knowledge in the World (72) + Reminding (72) + Natural Mappings (75) * The Tradeoff between Knowledge in the World and in the Head (79) Chapter Four: Knowing What to Do (81) * A Classification of Everyday Constraints (82) + Physical Constraints (84) + Semantic Constraints (85) + Cultural Constraints (85) + Logical Constraints (86) * Applying Affordances and Constraints to Everyday Objects (87) + The Problem with Doors (87) + The Problem with Switches (92) - Which Switch Controls Which Function? (93) - How Are The Switches Arranged? (95) * Visibility and Feedback (99) + Making Visible the Invisible (100) - Nothing Succeeds Like a Good Display (101) - What Can Be Done? (101) + Using Sound for Visibility (102) Chapter Five: To Err is Human (105) * Slips (106) + Types of Slips (107) - Capture Errors (107) - Description Errors (107) - Data-Driven Errors (109) - Associative Activiation Errors (109) - Loss of Activation Errors (109) - Mode Errors (110) + Detecting Slips (110) + Design Lessons from the Study of Slips (112) * Mistakes as Errors of Thought (114) + Some Models of Human Thought (114) + The Connectionist Approach (116) * The Structure of Tasks (119) + Wide and Deep Structures (119) + Shallow Structures (121) + Narrow Structures (121) + The Nature of Everyday Tasks (124) * Conscious and Subconscious Behavior (125) + Explaining Away Errors (127) + Social Pressure and Mistakes (129) * Designing for Error (131) + How to Deal with Error - And How Not To (131) + Forcing Functions (132) * A Design Philosophy (140) Chapter Six: The Design Challenge (141) * The Natural Evolution of Design (142) + Forces that Work Against Evolutionary Design (142) + The Typewriter: A Case History in the Evolution of Design (145) * Why Designers Go Astray (151) + Putting Aesthetics First (151) + Designers are Not Typical Users (155) + The Designer's Clients May Not Be Users (157) * The Complexity of the Design Process (158) + Designing for Special People (161) + Selective Attention: The Problem of Focus (164) * The Faucet: A Case History of Design Difficulties (166) * Two Deadly Temptations for Designers (172) + Creeping Featurism (172) + The Worshipping of False Images (174) * The Foibles of Computer Systems (177) + How to Do Things Wrong (178) + It's Not Too Late To Do Things Right (179) + Computer as Chameleon (183) - Explorable Systems: Inviting Experimentation (183) - Two Modes of Computer Usage (184) - The Invisible Computer of the Future (185) Chapter Seven: User-Centered Design (187) * Seven Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks into Simple Ones (188) + Use Knowledge in the World and Knowledge in the Head (189) - Three Conceptual Models (189) - The Role of Manuals (190) + Simplify the Structure of Tasks (191) - Keep the Task Much the Same, But Provide Mental Aids (192) - Use Technology to Make Visible What Would Otherwise Be Invisible, Thus Improving Feedback and the Ability to Keep Control (192) - Automate, But Keep the Task Much the Same (193) - Change the Nature of the Task (194) - Don't Take Away Control (197) + Make Things Visible: Bridge the Gulfs of Execution and Evaluation (197) + Get the Mappings Right (199) + Exploit the Power of Constraints: Both Natural and Artificial (199) + Design for Error (200) + When All Else Fails, Standardize (200) - Standardization and Technology (201) - The Timing of Standardization (202) * Deliberately Making Things Difficult (203) + Designing a Dugeons and Dragons Game (206) + Easy Looking is Not Necessarily Easy to Use (208) * Design and Society (209) + How Writing Method Affects Styles (210) - From Quill and Ink to Keyboard and Microphone (210) - Outline Processors and Hypertext (211) + The Home fo the Future: A Place of Comfort or a New Source of Frustration (213) * The Design of Everyday Things (216) --- Approaching the question of the day * "Can we come up with negative examples?" (Sam is silent). Suggestion from classmate: "Yes, an example of a failure is a good example." * "Maybe we should come up with the list first and the examples later; that way, we can first decide which are the best ten." * Preliminary list * Make it easy to determine what actions are possible at any moment * Ex: Electric tea kettle w switch that can only turn it on (turns off automatically) * Make things visible: Conceptual model, alternative actions, resuults of actions * Follow Natural mapping * Design for error * Exploit the power of constraints * Design response to feedback * Test products * Don't blame the user (bad design/blaming wrong cause) * Easy looking is not necessarily easy to use * Bridging gulf between execution and evaluation * "Design should be simple" * But there are special cases in which designs should be difficult. * Minimize error and accident * "Should we also talk about [After twelve, students decide to work on examples.] * For "Easy looking is not necessarily easy to use" * Clothes more aesthetically pleasing than easy to use * Example of Japanese shirt with snaps that give multiple holes * Another possibility: Balance aesthtetics and purpose/properties (Contrast with "Easy looking is not necessarily easy to use.") * Minimize error and accident [Sam forgot to take some notes] * Example of "Follow Natural mapping": Inversion or non-inversion on video-game controllers * "Agh, we have six minutes left. Let's get some examples out there." * Maintenance error from Petroski --- Final list: [Sam needs to transcribe] 1. Make it easy to determine what actions are possible at any moment Ex: Electric tea kettle w switch that can only turn it on (turns off automatically) 2. Make things visible: Conceptual model, alternative actions, results of actions Ex: Slot Machine 3. Follow Natural mapping Ex: Video Game Controls 4. Design for error * Ex: In the Chem lab there are several buttons that will erase all data (not designed for error) 5. Exploit the power of constraints Ex: Waffle makers in Dining hall can only flip 6.Test products and respond to feedback * E.g., videogame beats (Test before release) 7. Don't blame the user (bad design/blaming wrong cause) * Petroski's mainenance errors 8. Easy looking is not necessarily easy to use * Overhead projectors screen; looks easy but can never get to stay down 8.1. Balance aesthetics and purpose/properties * E.g., Clothes more aesthetically pleasing than functional or usable 9. Bridging gulf between execution and evaluation * E.g., Tea water in Japan (hard to understand when water is ready) 10. Minimize error and accident * "Safey scissors" --- Sam's last-minute reflections * Is it really a good idea to say "The ten key points we choose are the ones for which we have examples." * Question of how you'd use the technology of the classroom: Large group, small groups, whiteboard, etc. * Short-term memory: Five-seven things * Where should you look for the morals the author thinks are important? * The new preface (particularly since it reflects on the book) * The last chapter (beginning; end) * Norman says (p. x): "Although DOET covers numerous topics, three have come to stand out as critical:" 1. It's not your fault. 2. Design principles. * Conceptual models. * Feedback (show the effect of an action) * Constraints 3. The power of obseration. "If I have been successful, DOET will change the way you see the world. You will never look at a door or light switch in the same way again." * John has never played a twenty-line slot machine.