There are three main points that are made by Norman in this chapter. The first has to do with mostly our underlying biological preferences. It is the concept of visceral design. It has been determined by the evolutionary process. As humans we are attracted to certain thing naturally, such as bright colors, smooth designs and physical appeal. We are programmed to view these things as attractive. The second way of looking at designs relies only on the items usefulness, which is the concept of behavioral design. This idea goes back to our previous reading. The design relies on some of the old concepts of affordance, conceptual models and feedback. These are important because the main point of behavioral design is its function which all of the prior ideas have a role in. This new chapter of Normand is just an expanded way of looking at design. The final type of design is reflective. This idea plays on peoples cultural views. It tells us what we find elegant.
As I sit at my computer, I glance around my room scanning for objects that will fit into these three categories. The first thing that I see I immediately think visceral. It is a very bright colored Faygo pop can. The can is vibrant yellow and green with large bubbly lettering. On the sides of the can it displays words like genuine, twist and has a lemon lime picture. The next thing that I see is my large coffee cup. It is just purely behavioral, with it plain design and color. It is larger than normal coffee cups which affords me to be able to drink more coffee. This cup is very practical but neither elegant nor desirable. I am having a very hard time at first thinking of something in my room that qualifies as reflective. Then I glance at my shoes and see my pair of pumas. I am a skateboarder so what use would I have for a pair of pumas? Let me tell you none really the only reason I bought them was because I considered them to be fashionable. I was with my friend visiting Chicago and we saw them in a store. I did not perceive them to be a reflective item until now. I realize though that the sole reason for my purchase was for the compliments and style that the pumas provided.

“What is good about the design of the ca? Things are visible. There are good mapping, natural relationships, between the controls and the things controlled. Singe controls often have single functions. There is good feedback. The system is understandable. In general, the relationships among user’s intentions, require actions, and the results are sensible nonarbitrary, and meaningful.”I thought the article had a lot of interesting information for a couple reasons. The Initial reason is that it is proof that designers can come up with a device that can make sense to lots of people. It can have a obscene amount of different controls and options but the average person can grasp its controls. I also like how it makes me think about the concept of mapping. When you are driving a car that is all you are doing the whole time. You are using instruments together, such as the gas, brake, steering wheel and all the other controls. The first thing I do when I get in a car is start it. This requires me to push down the clutch and turn the key at the same time, the definition of mapping. Overall I thought that this article was interesting and informative.
Even though this book was written so long ago (ha-ha only 20 years) it has ideas that like Ford’s assembly line will always be influential. The ideas are so basic and important for the design of everything. Visual clues are an aspect of objects and devices throughout time. If a person can’t recognize how to perform a certain action or know how to use mapping between two different actions; then the device they are using is actually useless.
If I were to make a check list for evaluating the design of a product the first thing I question I would ask are all the commands easily seen and understandable. Then I would ask, do all the action give feedback; so that the user knows what they have done. Then I would want to know is the purpose of the device clear. Finally I would want to know if it is obvious what limitations the device has as well.

Feedback

The first chapter of this book has multiple key points that it discusses. It talks about the importance of visibility. It shows that it is very important to make clear to the user where the functions they wish to use are located. If the person is having trouble locating a function, then it is not an efficient product. The next important principle is mapping, which shows the relationship between two things. It is a problem when a user can’t figure out how to use two applications together for a purpose. Another idea is affordance; this shows that the object can be used for its purpose. If the user does not know what the object is used for the designer did not do his job at all. There is also the concept of feedback. This is a reassurance that the task requested has been done, signified by a signal on the object. If they are given no feedback then they cannot be certain that what they have set out to do has been accomplished. Also talked about is the conceptual model which is meant to predict what their action will come out to be. Finally there are constraints that tell the user what they are limited to do with the object.
The object I have the most difficulty using is other peoples TV remotes. They are always so complex with a lot of different buttons and options. Of course nobody I know has the same one either. They are always so visually clustered, that it is hard to find the button that I am looking for. It is also hard sometimes even when I do locate the right button, to then find the next one that I need. This would be a flaw in the mapping of the TV. Sometimes people even have two remotes, which makes me feel like sitting down and bawling my eyes out.
The iPod addressed some of these main problems that Norman talks about. The visual aids are awesome. Every button makes sense, the menu button goes back towards the main menu, the center button selects, the seek buttons are arrange so the user knows the direction that they lead to. It is a very straight forward object. It has great feedback because it is shown on the screen were you have gone. It has great mapping as well. It is easy to use multiple buttons in a combination to do any of the functions you wish.

The iPod

In the article “The Perfect Thing” the creators behind the iPod came together to solve many of the problems that where preventing the success of the MP3 player. They took the obstacles head on. First they sought out a way to give the iPod more memory than all other devices on the market. They found a hard drive that was 5 gigabits and was incredibly small. They also wanted this product to be about pocket size so that it would be easily transportable, yet still have a lot of song capacity. The battery for the iPod would have to have a much longer life span in order to make it practical. They also wanted the iPod to be an appropriate weight to have a little substance. the design that they came up with looked like a little box with a screen at the top with the command buttons bellow this. The real key innovation of this product was the scroll wheel; it aloud the user to scroll through artists, albums and songs at their own speed and ease. The wheel enabled consumers to find a song out of 1000 different options very quickly. The creators where also very set on making this product durable. They tested this product to make sure it would stay durable for its owners. Even though people were amazed by his product it is not perfect.
A thing may be amazing, or beautiful, or efficient but it can never be perfect. If given the opportunity to think of new addition for a product or thing there will always be new ideas. This is shown in the industry which is always coming out with new version of the iPod that my look different or have more functions. So I really don’t think that anything in this world is absolutely perfect because being perfect is subject to point of view. Some things that people consider when they think about their own view of perfection maybe elegance, strength, color, size, shape. But every person has their own thing or things that they look for.
I think that the iPod is a great music player. It provides a quick easy way to find any song, even out of a large collection. It has excellent battery life if you do not watch movies. It also has many great new setting like, on the Touch you can access the internet or with the iphone you can take pictures or run computer programs. Apple’s product has come so far sense its original version and I am sure it will keep innovating. Some of its weaknesses are that it concentrates on being good at so many things that some of its new or old additions may be compromised. Its battery life while watching movies is not sufficient either. Over all I think the iPod and the rest of its family members are amazing products and I am heavily anticipating their next upgrade or creation. But yet they will always still come out with these upgrades because they will never be able to reach that perfect product that everyone agrees on.