From water faucets and airplane cockpits to the concept of ”real time” and the future of memory, this wide-ranging tour through technology provides a new understanding of how the gadgets that surround us affect our lives. Donald Norman explores the plight of humans living in a world ruled by a technology that seems to exist for its own sake, oblivious to the needs of the people who create it. Turn Signals is an intelligent, whimsical, curmudgeonly look at our love/hate relationship with machines, as well as a persuasive call for the humanization of modern design.
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Mining the territory he explored in The Design of Everyday Things , Norman, in the first third of this entertaining and instructive volume, exposes clumsy design practices in water faucets, doors, stoves, kitchens and the U.S. Post Office's new stamp machine. The examples he cites are sometimes hilarious; for instance, an elevated monorail train in Australia requires a full-time attendant to prevent passengers from putting their tokens in the wrong slot. The rest of the book consists of engaging mini-essays on such topics as the use of refrigerator doors as message centers, the "real time" of computers versus psychological time, automotive signaling and cognitive aids in airplane cockpits. Norman likens design to an evolutionary process, but he maintains that most designers, unfortunately, are enamored of technology and lack empathy with the users of their devices. He serves up an eminently sensible smorgasbord of ideas, critiques and design insights. Illustrated. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Some years ago, Norman founded the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. In a lifetime of global travel and inquisitive analysis of human foibles, he has written various books and articles on the interaction of people and technology. Norman is troubled about "the dehumanizing nature of modern technology." Although he is not anti-machine, Norman is concerned that engineers often market technology with little regard for the consumers who will have to interact with hardware as the product. Writing clearly with humor and arresting insights, Norman analyzes such diverse topics as refrigerators as message centers in the home and pilots who place empty coffee cups over certain switches to avoid cockpit errors. Recommended. - Roger Bilstein, Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Don Norman is a voyeur, always watching, always on the lookout for some common-day occurrence that everyone else takes for granted but that when examined, yields insight into the human condition. (If you are rushing to catch a train, how do you know if you got to the station on time? Empty platform? You probably are too late. People milling about, looking at their watches,peering down the tracks? Probably OK. Who needs technology when people are so informative, even if as an accidental byproduct of their activities.
Business Week has named him one of "the world's most influential designers," the influence from his books, essasys, courses and students, lectures, and consulting.
He takes special delight in the interaction of people and technology. "Develop the skill of observation," he councils: especially pay attention to the obvious. "Question the obvious and you will dis cover many hidden insights. What seems to be obvious often is not."
He is a fellow of many organizations and former lots of things, including VP at Apple Computer and even President of a startup. He has honorary degrees from the University of Padua (Italy) and the Technical University Delft (the Netherlands). He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin medal in Computer and Cognitive Science and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is known for his books "The Design of Everyday Things," "Emotional Design," and "The Design of Future Things," but he is most proud of his students, now all over the world, who put into practice his human-centered design philosophy. his latest book is "Living with Complexity," which argues that complexity is necessary: Our tools must match our tasks. When people cry out for simplicity, they are wrong -- people want understanding. That is not the same as simplicity -- simple thing are often the most confusing.
He is currently revising "Design of Everyday Things" to keep the message the same but update the examples. Expected publication date is August 2013.
He lives at www.jnd.org, where you can find chapters from his books and loads of essays.
Professor Norman is one heck of a writer. I almost forgot to go to bed one night due to voraciously reading this book. Only the running out of the four candles that gave me light to read on the unelectrified summer cottage alerted me to the fact that it was well past two o'clock in the morning and it would be advisable to catch some shuteye. And TSAFEA is not Donald A. Norman's best book by far. Actually this book has been edited from essays and common sense columns written by Professor Norman and most of the issues are already familiar from the Psychology of Everyday Things and Things That Make Us Smart. Nevertheless I will be more than happy to recommend this book for my software designer friends in the future.
The most interesting chapters discuss social characteristics of machines and how a machine and its user, for example a car and its driver, form a (social) unit.
I liked The Psychology of Everyday Things so much that I picked this latest volume of Norman's up when I saw it in the store. Unlike POET, which was one long thesis on psychology and design, Turn Signals is a collection of essays on those topics. As such, it lacks the coherence of POET, but gains emphasis by focusing on specific topics covered only slightly in POET. First off, Norman relates how the title for POET has been changed to The Design of Everyday Things, because of a misconception in what the book was about and who the book was for, exactly the kind of common mistake that he was attempting to expose in the book. Then he moves on to topics like the design of airplane cockpits, the use of book jackets in libraries, using the refrigerator door as a message center, the electronic personal assistant, as well as the title essay on clues that we receive from other people versus clues we receive from machines. I like Norman, and his topic, and will be on the lookout for his other book, Things that Make Us Smart.
Support your hardworking local semioticians -- and don't buy this book. Donald Norman needs to learn the difference between a few 3x5 cards' worth of lecture quips and an actual, fleshed-out, sustained literary effort. He has some very alluring ideas here about how symbolism works in modern society, and apparently he thought that was enough to write and sell a book. Let's do him a favor to keep his next book from stumbling into remaindered-land, and ask him for some discipline and depth next time
