I’ve recently been reading a cracking book about the psychology of items that we use every day. The book is called the Design of Everyday things by Don Norman and it should be a compulsory read for all product designers. In it he explains why we find so many products infuriating and difficult to use and shows us how the sales process often means that usability is low on the list of most product design. He discusses how we respond to items around us and ultimately how things can be designed better. It is fascinating to read a psychologists explanation of things that we go through every day.
For example, Norman explains why we get so frustrated when we can’t work certain machines. He hypothesises that in general if something is difficult to use or if we can’t find the right button to make it work we tend to blame ourselves. We are ashamed that we can’t program the video recorder and feel like it is our deficiencies that prevent it from working. Norman argues that this should not be the case. Bad design is to blame for things that are difficult to use and that this should be addressed in the design process. We should not have to read a bland instruction manual to work out how to use a product. We should be offered intuitive buttons that make it easy for us.
Norman also discusses the concept that we have a relationship with different materials and that we naturally treat them differently. In essence we recognise that different materials do different things and we sub-consciously approach them with this in mind. For example glass has a few roles: it can be looked through and it can also be broken. Wood can be manipulated and joined to make things or the porous surface can be written on. These are the things that each item affords. He gives the example that the council had placed a glass wall on a bus shelter but vandals proceeded to smash it. The council replaced the glass screen with hardboard. This was the same thickness as the glass and could easily have been smashed but instead the vandals drew graffiti on the wood. This demonstrates that we react to different materials differently.
I would definitely recommend the book to designers and to people that want to understand more about the psychology of everyday things.
