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The Design of Future Things
Donald A. Norman
Amazon's Book Description:
From best-selling author Donald A. Norman,
the long-awaited sequel to The Design of
Everyday Things: a critical look at the new
dawn of "smart" technology, from
smooth-talking GPS units to cantankerous
refrigerators.
Donald A. Norman, a
popular design consultant to car
manufacturers, computer companies, and other
industrial and design outfits, has seen the
future and is worried. In this long-awaited
follow-up to The Design of Everyday Things,
he points out what's going wrong with the
wave of products just coming on the market
and some that are on drawing boards
everywhere--from "smart" cars and homes that
seek to anticipate a user's every need, to
the latest automatic navigational systems.
Norman builds on this critique to offer a
consumer-oriented theory of natural
human-machine interaction that can be put
into practice by the engineers and industrial
designers of tomorrow's thinking machines.
This is a consumer-oriented look at the
perils and promise of the smart objects of
the future, and a cautionary tale for
designers of these objects--many of which are
already in use or development.
Purchase from Amazon.com
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Supporting Performance at the Speed of
Work
Through the years the notion of "performance
support" has gained acceptance, based on the
work of Gloria Gery and her groundbreaking
book "Electronic Performance Support Systems"
published in the early 1990s. It is more
relevant than ever as today workers touch 5 -
12 enterprise computer systems throughout
their day. These systems remain difficult
to use, disparate in design and function, and
place a high-cost cognitive burden on the
performer. Add to this that the speed of
work is brisk and relentless as business
rules change at the drop of a hat for
companies to remain competitive. Finally,
organizational loyalties are a thing of the
past, as careers have become sequences of
jobs based on individual needs. All this
means that workers cannot quickly and
efficiently perform their tasks around
systems, processes and procedures, thus
organizational competency is routinely
compromised. Training workers in
advance misses the fact that 83% of what
workers need to perform is acquired on the
job, does nothing to reduce the many
hours workers spend looking for critical
information, and overlooks the fact that much
critical information is in the minds of a few.
All of the challenges of constant change and
complexity point to the ever growing need to
apply a performance centered design
(PCD™) approach to reshape the work
environment so that performance is achieved
at the speed of
work. This is accomplished by using such
technologies and techniques to remove
complexity, capture organizational memory and
make it explicit and accessible. The latest
and greatest technologies also provide
methods for gathering quality metrics for
knowledge workers and determining task
distributions by risk and complexity, in
order to focus support on the primary tasks
that affect competency. By applying these
techniques organizations can provide
knowledge and tools at the time of need, and
achieve competency on day one. Stay tuned to
this newsletter for a number of case studies
that describe how to do this with remarkable
returns on investment.
Best Regards,
Gary J.
Dickelman
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| Gary Dickelman to Deliver Keynote Address |
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Gary Dickelman will deliver the keynote
address at ICELW2008 - The International
Conference on E-Learning in the Workplace -
entitled "Achieving Competency at the Speed
of Work."
The
conference will be held June
12th - 13th 2008 at Teacher's College,
Columbia University, NYC.
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Conference Information at http://www.icelw.org |
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| Extreme User Research |
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(by Daniel
Lafreniere on 26
March 2008)
"Clients don't know a thing about their users,
and designers think that if they like it,
everyone will. Sound familiar? Daniel
Lafreniere's 30-minute "extreme user
research" plan comes to the rescue for those
of us facing this exact situation. With this
practical method, you can generate loads of
useful data that will have a real impact on
design, thus making the website more
effective and profitable..."
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Read this article at boxesandarrows.com ... |
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| Basic Principles and Concepts for Achieving Quality |
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(Software
Engineering Institute | Carnegie Mellon -
December
2007)
"This technical note extends the quality
concepts first articulated in A Software
Quality Framework (SQF) developed in the
early 1980s for the Department of Defense
(DoD) by Baker and colleagues. The original
quality concepts of the SQF are extended
beyond software to include products,
services, and processes. This technical note
also describes the conceptual elements
necessary for building quality into systems,
or any entity, and evaluating the quality
actually achieved ..."
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Read this article at sei.cmu.edu ... |
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| Four Bad Designs |
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(by Jakob
Nielson on 14
April 2008)
"Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad
category pages... which is worst for
business? In these examples, bad content
takes the prize for costing the company the
most money..."
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Read this article at useit.com ... |
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| 3 Important Usability Challenges for Designing Web Apps |
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(by Jared
M. Spool on 5
March 2008)
"Matching the user's natural flow is just one
challenge a web-based application developer
needs to address during the design and
development process. To help our clients,
we've compiled a list of three challenges
they'll want to keep their eye on..."
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Read this article at uie.com ... |
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| Online Activities & Pursuits - Information Searches That Solve Problems |
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(Pew/Internet
- 30
December 2007)
"There are several major findings in this
report. One is this: For help with a variety
of common problems, more people turn to the
internet than consult experts or family
members to provide information and resources.
Another key insight is that members of Gen Y
are the leading users of libraries for help
solving problems and in more general
patronage..."
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Read this report at pewinternet.org ... |
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EPSScentral Announces Recipients of 2007 PCD Awards
