Chapter 2: The Psychology of Everyday Things
I have experienced almost everything that Norman had described in this chapter. To this day, projectors completely baffle me. I understand the overall workings of a projector, but I would never even attempt to use one. I do tend to blame myself when I make mistakes--even if they are not really my fault. For example, my laptop has a touchpad that controls the mouse under the keyboard. Sometimes when I type, I occasionally lay my wrist down and accidentally touch the touchpad with part of my left palm. This causes the touchpad to think that I am trying to click something. I had thought I was just doing something wrong. Now, I realize that the real culprit is bad design. The designers should have taken into account a user's hand positions and placed the touchpad strategically away from resting hands. I know a lot of people who have been taught helplessness, especially when it comes to math. I have helped tutor a couple of people in algebra and calculus, and when they get frustrated, they just throw their arms in the air and exclaim, "I won't ever get math!" It is hard to get them out of that mindset, especially because it has been years since they started becoming frustrated in the subject.
Chapter 3: Knowledge in the Head and in the World
I have a job in retail as a cashier. This would imply that I know what U.S. currency looks like. However, after trying for several minutes to figure out what the penny really looks like, I noticed that I only take the shape, color, and weight into account when it comes to coins. This is so embedded in my mind that, whenever a dollar coin comes my way, I am usually thrown off. It is not a typical coin that customers pay with. The same thing happens when I get a two-dollar bill. My brain has to pause to process what it is and that it is an acceptable form of currency. When Norman listed all of the things he had to memorize, I realized that I had a lot to memorize, too. I have to remember usernames and passwords to my multiple email accounts, my UIN, social security number, my ID number at my job, birthdays, essential phone numbers, and much more. Knowledge in the world definitely takes a load off my brain, which is much appreciated.
Chapter 4: Knowing What to Do
In contrast to Norman, I find VCRs pretty intuitive in terms of operation. They used standardized symbols for playback; it was even easy to set the time on the VCR. The only thing that I could never figure out was how to record shows on video cassette. The biggest issue was that I had no feedback. Just as Norman said, an onscreen visual of what was going on when setting the VCR to record is necessary. The designs of doors and light switches are extremely important! There is a set of light switches in the living room. There are four little switches on the plate. One is for the ceiling fan, one is for the main light, one is for the light for the hallway, and one is for the light above the fireplace. I still don't remember which goes to what because there is absolutely no logical mapping from one light to the other. I ended up just putting a label for each light, which looks ugly but makes life so much easier.
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