Reference Information
Title: Design of Everyday Things
Author: Donald Norman
Publisher: Basic Books (2002)
Chapter 5: To Err is Human (36 Pages)
Summary
Norman discusses forms of human error. He breaks them down into 2 categories: slips and mistakes. He further breaks down "slips" into: capture errors, data-driven errors, description errors, associative activation errors, loss-of-activation errors and mode errors. He gives examples of each of them before his explanations of what they are. He then discusses how to detect slips and how to see them in the design process.
Norman than models mistakes as an error human thought. He focuses mainly on the conscious and subconscious mind. Later he goes on to describe the structure of tasks, calling everyday ones "conceptually simple". He examines wide, deep, shallow and narrow structures.
Discussion
Human error is (or at least should be) one of the biggest considerations in a design. A lot of times it can be hard to imagine the ways a user will use your product. Extensive testing in planning must go into any new design. Erring is inevitable and must be accounted for.
Norman discusses forms of human error. He breaks them down into 2 categories: slips and mistakes. He further breaks down "slips" into: capture errors, data-driven errors, description errors, associative activation errors, loss-of-activation errors and mode errors. He gives examples of each of them before his explanations of what they are. He then discusses how to detect slips and how to see them in the design process.
Norman than models mistakes as an error human thought. He focuses mainly on the conscious and subconscious mind. Later he goes on to describe the structure of tasks, calling everyday ones "conceptually simple". He examines wide, deep, shallow and narrow structures.
Discussion
Human error is (or at least should be) one of the biggest considerations in a design. A lot of times it can be hard to imagine the ways a user will use your product. Extensive testing in planning must go into any new design. Erring is inevitable and must be accounted for.
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