Moore's law
the power of computer processors doubles roughly every 2 years.
Visceral processing
elementary levels of motor action performance and perception.
behavioral processing
the levels of action specification and initial interpretation of the outcome.
Reflective processing
the development of goals, plans, and the final stage of evaluation of the outcome.
Norman's Law
The day the product team is announced, it is behind schedule and over its budget.
Discoverability
characteristics of good design: Is it possible to even figure out what actions are possible and where and how to perform them?
Understanding
characteristics of good design: What does it all mean? How is the product supposed to be used? What do all the different controls and settings mean?
Industrial design
creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefits of both user and manufacturer.
Interaction design
how people interact with technology + to enhance people's understanding of what can be done, what is happening, and what has just occurred + draws upon principles of psychology, design art, and emotion to ensure a positive, enjoyable experience.
Experience design
designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality and enjoyment of the total experience.
Design
how things work, how they are controlled, and the nature of the interaction between people and technology.
Machines
are conceived, designed, and constructed by people.
Human-centered design (HCD)
an approach that puts human needs, capabilities, and behavior first, then designs to accommodate those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving.
Good design
- starts with and understanding of psychology, and technology.
- requires good communication, especially from machine to person, indicating what actions are possible, what is happening, and what is about to happen.
Affordance
refers to the relationship between a physical object and a person.
- relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that determine just how the object could possibly be used.
Signifier
- determine what actions are possible + communicate where the action should take place.
- is an important communication device to the recipient.
Mapping
- is a technical term, borrowed from mathematics, meaning the relationship between the elements of two sets of things.
- is an important concept in the design and layout of controls and displays.
Feedback
- communicating the results of an action - is a well-known concept from the science of control and information theory.
Conceptual models
is an explanation, usually highly simplified of how something works.
System images
people create mental models of themselves, others and the environment, and the things with which they interact.
- formed through experience, training, and instruction.
- serve as guides to help achieve our goals and in understanding the world.
Knowledge OF
(declarative knowledge) includes the knowledge of facts and rules.
Knowledge HOW
(procedural knowledge) the knowledge that enables a person to be a skilled musician.
- difficult or impossible to write down and difficult to teach.
A key logger
is a software hidden within your computer system that records what you type and sends it to the bad guys.
the "something you have
is often a physical identifier, such as a card or key, perhaps even something implanted under the skin or a biometric identifier such as fingerprints or patterns of the eye's iris.
the "something you know
would be knowledge in the head, most likely memorized.
Mnemonics
a special technique used by memory experts to remember amazingly large amounts of material, often after only a single exposure.
Number-consonant mnemonic
one traditional method used to encode long sequences of digits is to first transform each digit into a consonant, then transform the consonant sequence into a memorable phrase.
ex: 1 - t; 2 - n; 3 - m; 4 - r; 5 - L
The study of the mind
is the subject of multiple disciplines, including the behavioral and social sciences, cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, and the information and computer sciences.
Cognition vs Emotion
Cognition and emotion cannot be separated.
Cognition thoughts lead to emotions: emotions drive cognitive thoughts.
--> That is why much of language is based on physical metaphors.
Cognition attempts to make sense of hte world: emotion assigns value.
Cogni
Subsconscious
- fast
- automatic
- multiple resources
- controls skilled behavior
Conscious
- slow
- controlled
- limited resources
- invoked for novel situations: when learning, when in danger, when things go wrong.
Emotion
- interacts with cognition biochemically, bathing the brain with hormones.
--> Hormones exert powerful biases on brain operation. In calm, nonthreatening situations, the emotional system triggers the release of hormones that relax the muscles and bias the
Positive emotional state
is ideal for creative thought, but it is not very well suited for getting things done.
- Too much, and we call the person scatterbrained, flitting from one topic to another, unable to finish one thought before another comes to mind
Negative emotional state
provides focus: precisely what is needed to maintain attention on a task and finish it.
- Too much, we get tunnel vision, where people are unable to look beyond their narrow point of view.
Three levels of processing
1) Refletive: conscious + highest emotion
2) Behavioral: basic emotion + subconscious
3) Visceral: basic emotion + subconscious
Visceral level (a.k.a: the lizard brain)
- the most basic level of processing.
- part of the basic protective mechanisms of the human affective system, making quick judgement about the environment: good or bad, safe or dangerous.
- allows us to respond quickly and subconsciously, without conscio
Visceral responses
- fast and completely subconscious.
FOR DESIGNERS:
- is about immediate perception: the pleasantness of a mellow, harmonious sound or the jarring, irratating scratch of fingernails on a rough surface.
- the style matters: appearances, whether sound or sig
Behavior level
- the home of learned skills, triggered by situations that match the appropriate patterns.
- is the home of all expectation-based emotions, of hope and joy, frustration and anger.
- action and analyses at this level are largely subconscious.
--> When we s
Feedback (a.k.a: knowledge of results)
- provides reassurance, even when it indicates ta negative result.
- is how expectations are resolved and is critical to learning and the development of skilled behavior.
Reflective level
- is the home of conscious cognition.
Conceptual models
are a form of story.
- We base our models on whatever knowledge we have, real or imaginary, naive or sophisticated.
--> In the absence of external information, people can let their imagination run free as long as the conceptual models they develop account
Learned helplessness
is a phenomenon that helps to explain the self-blame.
- refers to the situation in which people experience repeated failure at a task. As a result, they decide that the task cannot be done, at least not by them: they are helpless.
--> In the extreme case:
Learning experience
- replaced the word failture.
- To fail is to learn: we learn more from our failures than fom our successes. With success, sure, we are pleased, but we often have no idea why we succeeded. With failure, it is often possible to figure out why, to ensure th
Constraints
providing physical, logical, semantic, and cultural constraints guides actions and eases interpretation.
Short-term memory (a.k.a: working memory)
- retains the most recent experiences or material that is currently being thought about.
- is the memory of the just present.
- something like five to seven items is the limit of STM, with the number going to 10 or 12 if the material is continually repeat
Long-term memory
- is memory for the past.
- takes time for information to get into LTM and time and effort to get it out again.
(We do not remember our experiences as an exact recording, rather, as bits or pieces that are reconstructed and interpreted each time we recove
Procedural memory
a memory for how we do things.
Declarative memory
the memory for factual information.
Knowledge in the head (a.k.a: internal knowledge)
is actually knowledge in memory.
- includes conceptual models, cultural, semantic, and logical constraints on behavior, and analogies between the current situation and previous experiences with other situations.
Knowledge in the world (a.k.a: external knowledge)
- is a valuable tool for remembering, but only if it is available at the right place, at the right time, in the appropriate situation.
- is a powerful tool for enhanced intelligence.
- is often erroneous: witness the difficulties of trusting online source
Memory for arbitrary things
The items to be retained seem arbitrary, with no meaning and no particular relationship to one another or to things already known.
Memory for meaningful things
The items to be retained from meaningful relationship with themselves or with other things already known.
Arbitrary knowledge
can be classified as the simple remembering of things that have no underlying meaning or structure.
ex: memory of the letters of the alphabet and their ordering, the names of people, and foreign vocabulary, ...
Prospective memory or memory for the future
- Prospective memory: denotes the task of remembering to do some activity at a future time.
- Memory for the future: denotes planning abilities, the ability to imagine future scenarios.
--> Both are closely related.
Legacy problem
Too many devices use the existing standard - that is the legacy.
ex: If the symmetrial cylindrical battery were changed, there would also have to be a major change in a huge number of products.
Semantics
is the study of meaning.
Cultural constraints
each culture has a set of allowable actions for social situations.
- Cultural issues are at the root of many of the problems we have with new machines: no universally accepted conventions or customs for dealing with them.
Semantic constraints
are those that rely upon the meaning of the situation to control the set of possible actions.
- rely upon our knowledge of the situation and of the world. Such knowledge can be a powerful and important clue.
Logical constraints
are often used by home dwellers who undertake repair jobs.
ex: Many people had no knowledge that would help, but after all the other pieces had been placed on the motorcycle, there was only 1 piece left, only 1 possible place to go.
Cultural norms, Conventions, and Standards
- Every culture has its own conventions.
- Conventions are actually a form of cultural contraint, usually associated with how people behave. Some conventions determine what activities should be done, others prohibit or discourage actions. But in all cases
Task Analysis (HCD)
a usable design starts with careful observations of how the tasks being supported are actually performed, followed by a design process that results in a good fit to the actual ways the tasks get performed.
Forcing functions
are a form of physical constraint: situation in which the actions are constrained so that failure at 1 stage prevents the next step from happening.
Interlock
forces operations to take place in proper sequence.
Lock-in
keeps an operation active, prevents someones from prematurely stopping it.
- Standard lock-ins exist on many computer applications, where any attempt to exit the application wihtout saving work is prevented by a message prompt asking whether that is what
Lockouts
prevents someone from entering a space that is dangerous, or prevents an event from occuring.
ex: found in stairways of public buildings. In cases of fire, peole have a tendency to flee in a panic, down the stairs, past the ground floor and into the basem
Standardization
- is indeed the fundamental principle of deperation: when no other solution appears possible, simply design everything the same way, so people only have to learn once.
- simplify life for everyone. At the same time, they tend to hinder future development.
Sound as Signifiers
Sometimes everything that is needed cannot be made visible.
Enter sound: sound can provide information available in no other way.
Sound can tell us that things are working properly or that they need maintenance or repair.
Skeuomrphic
is the technical term for incorporating old, familiar ideas into new technologies, even though they no longer play a functional role.
Standardization vs Individualization
Standardization: is necessary to ensure that all electric vehicle sounds can readily be interpreted.
Individualization: has 2 functions: safety and marketing
+ Safety point of view: if there were many vehicles present on the street, individualization woul
Root cause analysis
is the name of the game: investigate the accident until the single, underlying cause is found.
Routine violation
occurs when noncompliance is so frequent that it is ignored.
Situational violation
occur when there are special circumstances.
Human error: Slip
- occurs when a person intends to do one action and ends up doing something else.
- the action performed is not the same as the acion that was intended.
- 2 major classes of slips: action based and memory-lapse
Action-based slip:
wrong action is performed.
ex: I poured some milk into my coffee and then put the coffee cup into the refrigerator. This is the correct action applied to the wrong object.
Memory-lapse slip:
- memory fails, so the intended action is not done or its results not evaluated.
ex: I forget to turn off the gas burner on my stove after cooking dinner.
Mistake
occurs when the wrong goal is established or the wrong plan is formed
- have 3 major classes: rule-based, knowledge-based and memory-lapse.
Rule-based mistake
the person has appropriately diagnosed the situation, but then decided upon an erroneous course of action: the wrong rule is being followed.
Knowledge-based mistake
the problem is misdiagnosed because of erroneous or incomplete knowledge.
ex: Weight of fuel was computed in pounds instead of kilograms
Memory-lapse mistake
takes place when there is forgetting at the stages of goals, plans or evaluation.
ex: A mechanic failed to complete troubleshooting because of distraction.
Mode-error slips
occurs when a device has different states in which the same controls have different meanings: we call these states modes.
- are inevitable in anything that has more possible actions than it has controls or displays, the controls mean different things in d
Knowledge in the world vs in the head
Feedback vs Feedforward
Levels of Processing
3 levels of Processing
Subconscious and Conscious
Bridge of Execution and Evaluation
Gulf of Execution and Evaluation
Freezer control ex.
Freezer operation ex.
Car's chair control bar ex.
Designer question guide
Signifier ex.
Sliding Door ex.
Sink draining prob. ex.
Door w/out Signifier ex.
The 5 Whys question guide
Classification of errors
Slips and Mistakes in the Action Cycle
Mapping of stoves prob. ex.
The role of HCD and Design Specializations
What is a good mapping
Light switches prob. ex.
Natural mapping of light switches to lights
A Lock-in Forcing Function
Destination-Control Elevators