ALL ABOUT DESIGN

I remember our first family computer setup. It was a box, it was heavy and thinking back now.. wow it was slow. I use to play this game called JumpStart, but all I remember from it was some colourful character saying “who left the juice in the caboose?” Don’t bother asking me what that even means because I have no clue either. It’s just a line that will forever be embedded into my memory, poor me.. I remember loving that game; even though I kind of had absolutely no idea how to actually properly play it.

You know when you just press a heap of buttons on the keyboard until the screen does something? Yeah, that was me.

So if I had no clue what to do while playing the game, can you then imagine little 5 year old me trying to turn it off?? THAT was a mission.

My parents have always been awful with technology, I’m actually kind of surprised we even had a home computer set up. Other than for me and my whacky leaning games, that box was untouched.  Even today my mum has that typical pointer finger typing style whenever she sends a text, my dad on the other hand literally doesn’t have the patience to find the correct letters on the keypad so instead he sends voice records.

I like to think that I’m relatively in the know with how technology works, then again I have absolutely no clue how to a Samsung phone functions. I’m an apple kind of girl.

Cringe.

This concept of not understanding technology and what should be simple tasks for the everyday users of these crazy gadgets ties into the book written by Donald Norman called ‘The Design of Everyday Things’.  Throughout the book he describes how if everything that were ever made followed a list of simple requirements, there would never be anyone that questions how to use said objects ever again. Learning would become easier and users would become more confident with other gadgets that may be slightly different to what they’re familiar with.

REFERENCES: 

Norman, D 1998, The design of everyday things, Basic Book, New York (Sections: Preface vii-xv; Chapter one 1-13; Chapter 4 (constraints) 81-87; (computers) 177-186).