It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines. (Location 369)
The problem with the designs of most engineers is that they are too logical. We have to accept human behavior the way it is, not the way we would wish it to be. (Location 380)
The solution is 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 an understanding of psychology and technology. Good design requires good communication, especially from machine to person, indicating what actions are possible, what is happening, and what is about to happen. (Location 411)
Discoverability results from appropriate application of five fundamental psychological concepts covered in the next few chapters: affordances, signifiers, constraints, mappings, and feedback. (Location 453)
An affordance is a relationship between the properties of an object and the capabilities of the agent that determine just how the object could possibly be used. (Location 464)
Affordances determine what actions are possible. Signifiers communicate where the action should take place. We need both. (Location 456)
Good design requires, among other things, good communication of the purpose, structure, and operation of the device to the people who use it. That is the role of the signifier. (Location 460)
Natural mapping, by which I mean taking advantage of spatial analogies, leads to immediate understanding. For example, to move an object up, move the control up. (Location 593)
Feedback must be immediate: even a delay of a tenth of a second can be disconcerting. If the delay is too long, people often give up, going off to do other activities. (Location 619)
Poor feedback can be worse than no feedback at all, because it is distracting, uninformative, and in many cases irritating and anxiety-provoking. (Location 626)
The same technology that simplifies life by providing more functions in each device also complicates life by making the device harder to learn, harder to use. This is the paradox of technology and the challenge for the designer. (Location 801)
The challenge is to use the principles of human-centered design to produce positive results, products that enhance lives and add to our pleasure and enjoyment. (Location 827)
We bridge the Gulf of Execution through the use of signifiers, constraints, mappings, and a conceptual model. We bridge the Gulf of Evaluation through the use of feedback and a conceptual model. (Location 878)
Cognition and emotion cannot be separated. Cognitive thoughts lead to emotions: emotions drive cognitive thoughts. (Location 1018)
I suggested that a useful approximate model of human cognition and emotion is to consider three levels of processing: visceral, behavioral, and reflective. (Location 1073)
In most homes, the thermostat is just an on-off switch. Moreover, most heating and cooling devices are either fully on or fully off: all or nothing, with no in-between states. (Location 1216)
But in my experience, human error usually is a result of poor design: it should be called system error. Humans err continually; it is an intrinsic part of our nature. System design should take this into account. (Location 1356)
We are creative and imaginative, not mechanical and precise. Machines require precision and accuracy; people don’t. (Location 1387)
It is easy to design devices that work well when everything goes as planned. The hard and necessary part of design is to make things work well even when things do not go as planned. (Location 1391)
The information that helps answer questions of execution (doing) is feedforward. (Location 1457)
People may know many things: that doesn’t mean they are true. (Location 1577)
The ideal reminder has to have both components: the signal that something is to be remembered, and then the message of what it is. (Location 2096)
Sometimes there are labels. But the proper natural mapping requires no diagrams, no labels, and no instructions. (Location 2249)
Remember, any problems you have are probably the design’s fault, not yours. (Location 2265)
The meanings of today may not be the meanings of the future. (Location 2462)
Just as the presence of sound can serve a useful role in providing feedback about events, the absence of sound can lead to the same kinds of difficulties we have already encountered from a lack of feedback. (Location 2919)
Skeuomorphic is the technical term for incorporating old, familiar ideas into new technologies, even though they no longer play a functional role. (Location 2950)
One way of overcoming the fear of the new is to make it look like the old. (Location 2954)