Book 128 - A Year of Magical Learning

Reflection Title: Human Centered Design

Book – The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Book Description:

Design doesn't have to complicated, which is why this guide to human-centered design shows that usability is just as important as aesthetics. Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints. The goal: guide the user effortlessly to the right action on the right control at the right time. The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how -- and why -- some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

Reflection:

This was such a great book, and I learned a ton from Don Norman and his lifetime of experience in intelligently designing products and applications for humans to successfully integrate into their lives with ease and seamless beauty.

If I had to sum up his philosophy on how he does this in one phrase, it is what he calls “Human Centered Design”.

Don has studied how human’s think, act, move, behave, and react to understand what makes us tick. He has then taken this immense knowledge on the operating system that is humans to intelligently build products and solutions that align to our natural tendencies. The result are things are easy to understand and use. They fit our evolutionary lifestyle and how we instinctual interact with this world. In short…THEY JUST MAKE SENSE!

When I think about transferring this philosophy of human centered design to other areas of life beyond great products, I’m blown away at how misaligned we are in some many other areas of our existence. Specifically, it makes me think about our modern work life and how it has come to be.

Humans are not made to be inactive sloths chained to a desk for 8-10 hours a day. We are not made to be isolated and separated from our families from long stretches at a time. We are not made to be forced to be a specialist in one single domain. We are not made to wake up at 5 am and grind away all day on 5 hours of sleep every night. We are not made to work at one job doing the same thing for 40 years and then retire.

Most importantly, we are not made to live other people’s values in an effort to make someone else money.

Remember what we learned from the book The Entangled Life, we are the composers of this world! Our job is to use our imagination and mash up all different kinds of things in our minds to bring forth totally new things seemingly out of nowhere.

How do we do that…well, we act like Humans! We are made to be active, to learn, to move, to try new things, to be curious, to ask questions, to explore, and to play. We are made to discover ourselves and this world. We are made to find a way to express our values and turn it into meaningful work that we can be proud of. We are made to build relationships where we can collaborate, share, and help one another to achieve their goals and connect through shared values.

In short, we are made to produce meaningful work and build meaningful relationships.

If it is so easy to take a Human Centered Design with our products and services we build, why can’t we do the same thing with our actual lives?

I’m planning on spending the rest of my life working on this problem. Stay tuned!

Question: How can you apply the concept of Human Centered Design to your own life?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman