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Donald A. Norman

Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine (William Patrick Book) Paperback – April 21, 1994

by Donald A. Norman (Author)

37 ratings

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In Things That Make Us Smart, Donald A. Norman explores the complex interaction between human thought and the technology it creates, arguing for the development of machines that fit our minds, rather than minds that must conform to the machine.Humans have always worked with objects to extend our cognitive powers, from counting on our fingers to designing massive supercomputers. But advanced technology does more than merely assist with thought and memory—the machines we create begin to shape how we think and, at times, even what we value. Norman, in exploring this complex relationship between humans and machines, gives us the first steps towards demanding a person-centered redesign of the machines that surround our lives.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Basic Books
Publication date

April 21, 1994
Dimensions

0.87 x 6.12 x 9.12 inches
ISBN-10

0201626950
ISBN-13

978-0201626957
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Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Don Norman Paperback $14.40
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A thoughtful critique of "machine-centered" corporate technology from the author of The Design of Everyday Things .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

Humans have always worked with objects to extend our cognitive powers, from counting on our fingers to designing massive supercomputers. But advanced technology does more than merely assist with thought and memory--the machines we create begin to shape how we think and, at times, even what we value. Norman, in exploring this complex relationship between humans and machines, gives us the first steps towards demanding a person-centered redesign of the machines that surround our lives.

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Product details

Publisher : Basic Books; Revised ed. edition (April 21, 1994)
Language : English
Paperback : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 0201626950
ISBN-13 : 978-0201626957
Item Weight : 15.6 ounces
Dimensions : 0.87 x 6.12 x 9.12 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,139,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5,870 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)
- #6,631 in Technology (Books)
- #37,564 in Philosophy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
37 ratings

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Clay N

5% gold

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

5% of this book is gold. The rest is a lot of fluff and meandering.

One person found this helpful

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Bo Yan

change your perspective on the relationship between human and machine

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2013

Verified Purchase

this is a very good book about the relationship between human and machine from the design and utility perspectives. the message is important, especially when technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous in our life. At times, the book is a bit repetitive. But, overall, a very good book with important message.

Helpful

O. Kagan

Book That Makes Us Smart? Maybe.

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2008

"Things That Make Us Smart" is Don Norman professing his thoughts on how technologies serve as cognitive artifacts, from past to present. There is a lot of repetition and extraneous information including Norman's thoughts on forecasting technology trends. If you have read "The Design of Everyday Things," there will be familiar ideas. Likewise, I found that the last two chapters("Soft and Hard Technology" and "Technology is Not Neutral") to be very similar to Norman's ideas in "The Design of Future Things". For Information Science folks, the chapter called "A Place for Everything, and Everything in It's Place" might be of skimming interest; in it, Norman writes about workspace organization, and touches on information retrieval, though his views concerning the latter subject have been somewhat superseded by current search engine technologies. For me, "Things That Make Us Smart" was most fascinating when Norman spoke in chapter two(and other places) about cognition; experiential and reflective thought, and how technology can elicit each.

"Things That Make Us Smart" is typical Donald Norman; take the idea of a human-centered approach to technology and run with it. For those seeking an introduction to Norman, forgo this book in favor of "The Design of Everyday Things." For those familiar with Norman's ideas, skim at your leisure.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

turtlemonvh

Human cognition + artifacts = awesome

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2014

The central tenant of this book is that humans are not that impressive without "thinking aides" (called "artifacts" by the author) to help us solve problems. The author provides convincing evidence about this, then goes on to discuss what makes certain types of artifacts so successful.

I enjoyed this book mainly because of the insight I received on how to determine whether an artifacts is effective, and how to make a tool a more effective cognitive artifact.

If you work to design, architect, and construct things that people use to help themselves think better, this is a worthwhile book to read.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Technology changes, we don't

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2011

An older book, but it's discussion on Representation, Artifacts and Cognition remain pertinent today. We as humans, use aids to remember and understand. Our ability to reflect sets us apart from all the other animals on this planet. However these aids we call technology, need to accommodate us, not the other way around.

As we have created technology many time, enamored with what it could offer, we just assumed we just had to change how we worked to use it. Unfortunately we don't think like machines and trying to, often had unsatisfactory results. As the author pointed out: The Motto of the 1933 Worlds fair was: Science Finds, Industry Applies Man Conforms, was a backwards approach and suggested instead our motto should be: People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms. This in effect expecting Technology to adapt to its users. This made more sense as quite frankly we humans had hardwired limitations that could not be ignored.

The author discussed various issues with technology, some pertinent today and some that were clearly remnants of an earlier age..

I particularly found the section on predicting the future quite interesting. Technology needs both infrastructure as well as social acceptance and the author pointed out a 10 year span, is not enough to see change, but a 50 year span is. At first glance I was thinking this was speeding up considering the computer, cell phone and digital cameras today. However, if you think, phones, cameras and even computers were around 10 years ago, there was a structure, how they were produced and managed are the only things that have changed. Compare this to 1960 and you have quite a shift however.

The authors main point is that we humans should not become slaves to technology and try to change the way we do things. We have real limitations. We as the inventors of this Technology, should make it serve us, not the other way around.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

L. Ralston

Machine-Centered vs. Human-Centered technology

Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2000

I have often heard that "computers don't make mistakes, humans do." It is around this premise that Donald Norman centers his book. He agrees with this statement - that humans make the mistakes, but it is because the computers and software are poorly designed. We make mistakes because "the machine-centered tasks imposed upon us through our technology ask us to behave in ways incompatible with our fundamental capabilities." (p. 138) If computers and software were people-centered, that is designed from the humans point of view, there would be less mistakes, or at the very least, the technology would be able to make "fuzzy" judgments for corrections.
Norman takes us through a discovery of what is "right" and what is "wrong" with many of the objects we use everyday. He points out both good design (such as the genius of the filing cabinet) and bad design, while also wishing for a new and better way. The interesting part is to note that many of these wishes he made in 1994 have actually become reality. He wished for "computerized scheduling" that can be updated and shared (p. 216) - many of us have Palm Pilots from which we can down/upload calendar updates to and from our desktop computer or share our calendar to another Palm Pilot via "beaming." He also warns us that technologies take a long time to be accepted... and asks us to consider the present to ten years prior - that there isn't that much difference. (p. 192) In 1994, there wasn't much difference in the world from 10 years before, but in the six years since 1994 the world has undergone tremendous change, mostly due to the increased use of the Internet. I am very interested in reading his latest book to see how he addresses this.

2 people found this helpful

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Abhilash

Great book. Leant a lot!

Reviewed in India on September 23, 2018

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Another great work from Don. Thanks a lot. Enjoyed reading it. Makes very clear hat humans are good at.

Dorian

Livre très intéressant

Reviewed in France on April 4, 2017

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Un livre sur les sciences cognitives très intéressant, en anglais bien sûr, qui traite de l'avenir de l'homme dans notre société et de tout ce qui le rend intelligent.

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