Lessons from The Design of Everyday Things (3/7)
Can you imagine designing the above stovetop? They were so close. I’m not going to criticize anyone (even though I kinda just did, I’m sorry) because I’m not even an experienced designer, but I think most people would agree that this layout is confusing. They could have lined up the knobs to match the direction of the burners at least. But hey, I’m no professional.
Enough ranting, let’s dive into chapter 3 of Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things; Knowledge in the Head and in the World!
Both types of knowledge are essential for us to manage in, and make sense of, our environments. Knowledge in the head is mainly our memory (short and long-term). Though it seems like there’s no limit to our memory (in terms of the amount we can store), we are susceptible to making errors in virtually all levels of memory processing (encoding, storing, and retrieving). On the other hand, knowledge in the world is information that is present in our environments and where designers come in to help. The only way knowledge in the world is useful to us is if we’re able to successfully interpret it. Examples of knowledge in the world are physical constraints, mapping, and signifiers.
Knowledge in the Head
Unsurprisingly, memory acts as the main form of our knowledge in the head. There are two types of memory, short term and long term, and both have their own advantages and disadvantages. The way we categorize our memories fall into two subcategories: memory for arbitrary things and memory for meaningful things.
Short Term Memory
Advantages
Automatic and effortless retrieval
Disadvantages
Amount stored is severely limited
Our short term memory is able to store small amounts of information for a short period of time. However, though the amount we can store is limited, we’re able to retrieve this information automatically and effortlessly without needing to learn which is efficient and convenient. We can store 5–7 items at a time or 10–12 with rehearsing (by repeating them). Our short term memory is also quite fragile and dependent on how much we need to remember and how focused we are.
Norman gives the example of how hospital staff need to constantly log in to their hospitals’ portals which house sensitive patient information in order to protect patient details. In order to protect patient identities and data, portals log staff out so malicious individuals can’t access this secure information. When users log in enough times, remembering their username and password comes easily to them. This also sounds like a good security measure in theory, but in practice, it can be frustrating and sometimes pose threats when crucial patient data is needed and not readily available.
Additionally, Norman illustrates how counter productive security can be in technology with needing to remember various passwords for differing platforms/software. When creating accounts online, we’re told that our passwords needs to be unique, we’re told they need to include a certain amount of numbers or symbols or capitalized letters, all in the effort to protect our privacy, identity, and sensitive information. What’s counterproductive about this though, Norman writes, is that we don’t want to remember tens or hundreds of different passwords, so we either have one or a few specific passwords that we use for multiple accounts or we write down our passwords on pieces of paper or in notebooks making it easy for thieves to steal.
The world of digital security is messy and complicated and designers need to ensure that sensitive information is presented long enough for people to see if and when it disappears.
How to help people remember
When presenting important information, Norman advises designers to remember a few things.
First, when presenting sensitive information (digitally), users need to have enough time to see and make sense of it. What’s the point of displaying information when it disappears before we can make sense of it or at least remember it/write it down?
Secondly, designers need to be aware that the more items users need to remember the more difficult it will be for people to do so. As I said before, most people are able to only remember 5–7 items at a time without rehearsing (repeating it) and our short term memory only lasts for about 15–30 seconds. Norman mentions how we’re able to remember more through different modalities (our senses; seeing vs hearing vs feeling). A great example of this is a standard GPS system. Drivers who need to visually focus on the road, are able to keep their focus while directions are vocalized. This helps split the workload so drivers don’t have to focus their visual attention on the road ahead and on a road map. The best way for people to remember though, is to not have to make them remember anything.
Long Term Memory
Advantages
Potentially unlimited amount of storage
Disadvantages
Takes time to store in long term memory and effort to pull it out
May not be reliable
Our long term memory is comprised of information from our short term memory storage that we have adequately rehearsed and formed associations which have helped us store this information in our long term memory.
What’s amazing is that scientists say that we’re able to hold an unlimited amount of information in our long term memory and hold it there for an indefinite amount of time. Pretty amazing! Unfortunately, there are some drawbacks to long term memory. Firstly, it takes time for information and memories to get stored and it takes effort to get it back out. Another downside is that our memories aren’t stored as perfect recordings of what actually happened, we store bits and pieces of events in the way that we remember them which may not always be accurate. Also, whenever we retrieve memories we’re susceptible to make all kinds of distortions along the way. Long term memory is also dependent on how and what we stored in the first place. So as much power as long term memory may hold, it may not always be the most reliable.
Categorizing Memory
When it comes to organizing our memory Norman discusses two types: memory for arbitrary things and memory for meaningful things.
Memory for Arbitrary Things: items to be retained seem arbitrary, with no meaning and no particular relationship to one another or to things already known.
This is when we need to remember things that don’t have a particular structure or meaning. This kind of memory is used for rote memory. Examples of this are the order of the alphabet, foreign vocabulary, and people’s names. The problems with rote memory is that it takes time to get down and it’s difficult to learn and remember. Another problem is when something goes wrong, there are little clues we can associate with the mistake because of the lack of structure. This is why we sometimes create an artificial structure to make sense of the randomness.
Luckily, many things in this world have meaning and an underlying structure which makes learning easier. Here, Norman highlights the importance of providing structure and meaning in the world so people don’t have to rely on their memory.
Memory for Meaningful Things: Items to be retained form a meaningful relationships with other things already known.
Knowledge in the World
This knowledge is dependent on information available to us in our environment and the knowledge we have in our heads to make sense of it. In order for this information to be useful to us we need to be able to find it (discoverability), to use it at the appropriate time and place, and to make sense of it. It’s also important to note that meaning in our environments can vary between cultures. In this chapter Norman goes over mapping, signifiers, and introduces us to constraints.
Mapping
Relationship between two sets of things. A (not so great) example: Norman, like me, isn’t too fond of how burner knobs are situated on stoves. One reason why we don’t like them is because of poor mapping. A huge reason for this confusion is that the burners aren’t lined up in the same way as the knobs. Most burners are organized in a 2 x 2 grid whereas the knobs are arranged in a straight line. Is the first knob responsible for lighting the back burner or front burner? There’s an obvious way to find out but we get frustrated when the burner we want to light doesn’t.
Good mapping creates a seamless corresspondence between two things. A good example are keys on a keyboard. In interface design, pinching the screen with our fingers close together and dragging them away from each other allows us to zoom in to a photo or web page.
Signifiers
Things that signal you to take a particular action. Example: buses have a red stop sign attached to hand rails that passengers can press on when their stop is approaching.
Constraints
Last but not least we’re introduced to constraints which I’m personally excited about (because I have no life). Constraints sound like what they are. They are an object’s limitation. To continue with the beloved stovetop example, we can’t drag and drop burner knobs to which burner we’d like to light (who knows maybe one day we will), we’re limited to turning the knobs clockwise or counterclockwise. Constraints can help designers limit the amount of choices users can act on. The downside is users may be confused on which specific actions to apply. It’s always best to follow conventions, do research on your users, and apply the right actions to interfaces.
Cultural Differences: Time
To get an idea of how differently we think among cultures Norman shares research he did with people regarding how they view time. I thought this was super interesting.
Cultures that write from left to right (Arabic cultures for instance) view time to move in the left direction, so they would see the future to be on the left side. The opposite is true for cultures that write from left to right.
Some cultures view a person standing still on a timeline with the timeline moving indicating a passage of time while others imagine a person walking forward on a still timeline. Another difference was some people view the past to be behind them while they face the future while others view the past to be in front of them (indicating that they see their past whereas they can’t see their future).
Always remember to design with how people already think in mind.
If you’re still here, I’m so proud of you, thank you for your time. I hope this was helpful for you and hopefully I’ll see you in my next article which will cover chapter 4; Knowing what to do: Constraints, Discoverability, Feedback!
