Reference Information
Title: Living With Complexity
Author: Donald A. Norman
Editors: The MIT Press (2010)
Summary
Chapter 1: Why is Complexity Necessary? (32 pages)
Norman begins by talking about the idea of things being complex and things being complicated. Things being complex refers to the state of the world, the tasks we do and the tools we use. Things being complicated refers to the psychological state of a person attempting to understand, use or interact with something in the world.
He then talks about how complicated systems occur as a result of poor design and different ways of coping with complexity. There are several examples however of when we like complexity as it seems to be appropriate. One of the ways that he measures complexity is by the time it takes to learn and master a task.
Chapter 2: Simplicity is in the Mind (30 pages)
Norman talks about the conceptual model, the underlying belief a person holds about how something works. The conceptual model helps to simplex complexity in systems. He goes on to talk about "featuritis", adding more and more features to a product thereby increasing its complexity. Norman prefers an intermediate level of complexity as simpler looking products do not always result in simpler to use.
Discussion
In regards to the first chapter, I really liked how he measured complexity. One of my favorite books is called "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell and in it, he talks about something called the"10,000 Hour Rule". The rule is basically that to become a master at anything, it takes about 10,000 hours. He gives examples of the early Beatles, Bill Gates, and Canadian hockey players.
I also really liked what he talked about in chapter 2 about "featuritis". I've seen that happen to a lot of projects that I work on. I keep adding features and all of a sudden it balloons up and there's crap everywhere.
Summary
Chapter 1: Why is Complexity Necessary? (32 pages)
Norman begins by talking about the idea of things being complex and things being complicated. Things being complex refers to the state of the world, the tasks we do and the tools we use. Things being complicated refers to the psychological state of a person attempting to understand, use or interact with something in the world.
He then talks about how complicated systems occur as a result of poor design and different ways of coping with complexity. There are several examples however of when we like complexity as it seems to be appropriate. One of the ways that he measures complexity is by the time it takes to learn and master a task.
Chapter 2: Simplicity is in the Mind (30 pages)
Norman talks about the conceptual model, the underlying belief a person holds about how something works. The conceptual model helps to simplex complexity in systems. He goes on to talk about "featuritis", adding more and more features to a product thereby increasing its complexity. Norman prefers an intermediate level of complexity as simpler looking products do not always result in simpler to use.
Discussion
In regards to the first chapter, I really liked how he measured complexity. One of my favorite books is called "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell and in it, he talks about something called the"10,000 Hour Rule". The rule is basically that to become a master at anything, it takes about 10,000 hours. He gives examples of the early Beatles, Bill Gates, and Canadian hockey players.
I also really liked what he talked about in chapter 2 about "featuritis". I've seen that happen to a lot of projects that I work on. I keep adding features and all of a sudden it balloons up and there's crap everywhere.
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