Design Intelligence #3

1. "Consider the door. There is not much you can do to a door: you can open it or shut it. Suppose you are in an office building, walking down a corridor. You come to adoor. In which direction does it open? Should you pull or push, on the left or the right? Maybe the door slides. If so, in which direction? I have seen doors that slide up into the ceiling. A door poses only two essential questions: In which direction does it move? On which side should one work it? The answers should be given by the design, without any need for words or symbols, certainly without any need for trial and error."
I thought that this was an interesting quote because the author described how even the simplest designs could be made into a complicated puzzle. Think about the process you use when you want to open a door. You don't stand in front of the door and begin to deduce how the door may open, you walk up to it and push or pull, turn a doorknob or even turn a handle. However, how many times have you walked up to a door and have accidentaly pushed or pulled the wrong way? How many times have you seen a person walk up to a door and accidentaly push instead of pull? It seems so interesting that added features that are designed to help can at first hinder us.

2. Even thought this book is 20 years old, it by no way means that the information it contains has become useless. Mathematicians use formulas and techniques that are much older and dated than this book. This book contains ideas that are widely accepted, and I would think that many companies would use this book's ideas as a starting point for any products that they produce. This book's opinions and ideas seem like they are the best that can be found today until someone can come up with something better.

3. There are several factors that I would put in a checklist for the evaluation of a product. First, I would make sure that the product was easy and simple to use. Secondly, I would make sure that the product would do its job and do it well. Thirdly, I would make sure the product was practical. Fourthly, I would make sure that the product was produced with quaility. Lastly, I would make sure the product would be appeasing to the group of people it will be aimed at.

Thanks for reading,
Ted Hwang