Reference
Things That Make Us Smart
Donald Norman
Basic Books 1994
Summary
This book focuses on the cognitive artifacts which effect a user's understanding and perception of a system. A strong argument for human-centered, rather than machine-centered design is given. Humans are subject to emotion and distraction and systems must account for this when interacting with them. Cognition is divisible into two major areas: experiential and reflective. These two approaches allow either reaction to events in an automatic manner or the ability to compare two choices and form a decision. Emphasis is given to the fact that both types of cognition must be considered when designing a system. Styles of learning are also important to the creation of easily understandable and usable systems. Learning can be divided into accretion (acquiring information), tuning (becoming an expert or mastering something) and restructuring (or internal reflective thoughts). Also important to understanding of a system is the method by which we represent concepts in the world. Norman also details cognitive artifacts and their various meanings to different individuals.
Discussion
The most interesting portion of this book was that of learning methods and representations. Understanding these concepts can lead to the creation of systems which are enjoyable to use and easy for users to learn. Humans are capable of recognizing many symbolic representations and the correct usage of these in software design can be very beneficial to a system. The idea of increasing motivation within education is particularly interesting.
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