Reading response 2: The Psychopathology of Everyday Things

Design is such an important part of any object.

Norman has a very interesting perspective on design and touches on some thought provoking points. As a visual arts major, and someone who has dabbled in design a little bit, I understand the challenges that Norman talks about in relation to designers. Design is so important. It can either simplify, or complicate things for the users/audience, it can be interesting, aesthetic, minimalistic, boring, or complex. An navigating between the visual appeal of something and the efficiency and ease of use is up to the designer.

Norman talks about human centered design, which makes a lot of sense to me. An idea or product might be good in theory, but it might not be suited to the behavior of the average human. Furthermore another challenge for the designer is deciding how complex something should be. Norman talks about how adding more functions to something is supposed to make things easier by providing more options, but just complicates life. So a designer needs to decide the best balance between the two. It is very interesting to think of the development of design, and the new and unique design being developed for some products, while others stay relatively the same, and to think about how this will develop and change in the future.