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I was gifted this book my a CIO when in college. She had a dozen copies in her office to hand out to various people. It took me a few tries to get up the will

I was gifted this book my a CIO when in college. She had a dozen copies in her office to hand out to various people. It took me a few tries to get up the will to actually read it. It was years ago, so I don’t remember a lot of details. My main take away was to make controls logical for the thing being controlled. “Norman doors” are the big one, but I often think about it while I’m in my car trying to do something on a touch screen, when all I want is a knob, button, or switch. In the modern era of web design I think it would point to these websites (like most of Apple’s product pages), that make users scroll through indulgent animations, just to get to the content. It may be cool the first time, but is very annoying for repeat visits, and it feels like it breaks my scrolling expectations. Not to mention all the horizontal scrolling thrown in there, which becomes a headache for those without the hardware to do it easily, and confusing to change scroll direction all the time.

arethuza 10mo ago
My car has a staggeringly bad UI design choice - the cancel active navigation the control to do this only appears when you hold your finger close to the screen. Pretty much every time I want to do this I am flummoxed as to "Where did the button go" - before I eventually remember. The navigation system is good - I prefer it to using my phone and CarPlay but that design is terrible.
- al_borland 10mo ago
  Is it a VW? I had a VW with a proximity sensor like that. I didn’t use the in-car navigation, but it did that for the favorites on the radio. They only showed as I moved my finger close to the screen.
  - arethuza 10mo ago
    VW Group yes - a Škoda
    - barrkel 10mo ago
      I also have a Skoda that also has that "feature". I prefer using Maps via Android Auto, but if I am in that interface, and I have to cancel it, the way I cancel it is using a voice command.
      - arethuza 10mo ago
        Voice commands and Scottish accents are not a great combination.
Nemi 10mo ago
I love this. Thank you for introducing me to "Norman Doors". I hadn't realized someone else had described this in such detail. I have been complaining about this years. Ok this will be a tangent, but I also take this one step farther and also talk about "documentation". Just for the record, I don't think documentation is all good or all bad, but it definitely can be used incorrectly and in excess. And Norman Doors and a great way to get this point across. When someone creates or installs a Norman Door by accident or out of ignorance and then realizes there is a problem, they often think "I know, I will document it!" and they add little placards to the door that says "Push/Pull" or some such. They see that this helps with a small subset of users and thinks "there, I fixed the problem, people just need to read the documentation and now it is their problem if they don't". But if you watch users of the door, a large portion will still use the door incorrectly because... people don't read documentation. If they don't read documentation, is it the users fault the door was designed incorrectly or was it the designers problem? I use this as an example for my developers on thinking before documenting troublesome code or a confusing interface to first ask "can I design this so it is less confusing?" and if so, that would usually be preferable to adding documentation "to solve the problem". Well designed code (or doors) with no documentation always beats poor designs with documentation.
- creeble 10mo ago
  Which reminds me of another "there, problem solved!" pet peeve of mine. I call it the Default Trap. In many cases (Norman Doors are an example), there are two or more equally valid ways to do something. By "equally valid", I mean there is no clear standard for whether it should operate one way or the other, and if you ask 100 people which way it should work (which no one ever does), you get something approaching 50%. So the product manager or perhaps developer simply says "make it a setting", and everyone agrees and declares the problem solved. But the problem is, you have to choose a default. And 90% of the time, no one is going to change that default, or even discover how to. So you have to be very correct about assuming which value is the best default - and at that point, it probably doesn't matter that you make it an option.
  - al_borland 10mo ago
ccppurcell 10mo ago
The thing about norman doors is that it's not really a design flaw, not in every case. Like handles on push doors. It's tempting to think of that as a design flaw but more likely it's designed to be mass produced and reversible, the cost of making two (or more) configurations being much higher than the occasional confused user. You could argue this only enhances the metaphor as a lot of design issues occur when things are optimised for the company and not the user.
- al_borland 10mo ago
  I still see this as a design flaw, even if it explains why it was done. They save a little in manufacturing, and then thousands of people per day end up using it wrong for decades, in the case of a high traffic door, like at a mall. Related… this is one of my favorite Far Side comics. https://fifetli.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/screen-shot-2019-01-15-at-8.26.48-am.png?w=900 https://fifetli.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/scr...
- gtowey 10mo ago
  Wouldn't the solution to make the door so different handles can fit on both sides and then the installer can simply put the correct handle on each side as needed? Surely that is just as much of a manufacturing efficiency improvement.

arethuza 10mo ago

My car has a staggeringly bad UI design choice - the cancel active navigation the control to do this only appears when you hold your finger close to the screen. Pretty much every time I want to do this I am flummoxed as to "Where did the button go" - before I eventually remember. The navigation system is good - I prefer it to using my phone and CarPlay but that design is terrible.

al_borland 10mo ago
Is it a VW? I had a VW with a proximity sensor like that. I didn’t use the in-car navigation, but it did that for the favorites on the radio. They only showed as I moved my finger close to the screen.
- arethuza 10mo ago
  VW Group yes - a Škoda
  - barrkel 10mo ago
    I also have a Skoda that also has that "feature". I prefer using Maps via Android Auto, but if I am in that interface, and I have to cancel it, the way I cancel it is using a voice command.
    - arethuza 10mo ago
      Voice commands and Scottish accents are not a great combination.

Nemi 10mo ago

I love this. Thank you for introducing me to "Norman Doors". I hadn't realized someone else had described this in such detail. I have been complaining about this years. Ok this will be a tangent, but I also take this one step farther and also talk about "documentation". Just for the record, I don't think documentation is all good or all bad, but it definitely can be used incorrectly and in excess. And Norman Doors and a great way to get this point across. When someone creates or installs a Norman Door by accident or out of ignorance and then realizes there is a problem, they often think "I know, I will document it!" and they add little placards to the door that says "Push/Pull" or some such. They see that this helps with a small subset of users and thinks "there, I fixed the problem, people just need to read the documentation and now it is their problem if they don't". But if you watch users of the door, a large portion will still use the door incorrectly because... people don't read documentation. If they don't read documentation, is it the users fault the door was designed incorrectly or was it the designers problem? I use this as an example for my developers on thinking before documenting troublesome code or a confusing interface to first ask "can I design this so it is less confusing?" and if so, that would usually be preferable to adding documentation "to solve the problem". Well designed code (or doors) with no documentation always beats poor designs with documentation.

creeble 10mo ago
Which reminds me of another "there, problem solved!" pet peeve of mine. I call it the Default Trap. In many cases (Norman Doors are an example), there are two or more equally valid ways to do something. By "equally valid", I mean there is no clear standard for whether it should operate one way or the other, and if you ask 100 people which way it should work (which no one ever does), you get something approaching 50%. So the product manager or perhaps developer simply says "make it a setting", and everyone agrees and declares the problem solved. But the problem is, you have to choose a default. And 90% of the time, no one is going to change that default, or even discover how to. So you have to be very correct about assuming which value is the best default - and at that point, it probably doesn't matter that you make it an option.
- al_borland 10mo ago

ccppurcell 10mo ago

The thing about norman doors is that it's not really a design flaw, not in every case. Like handles on push doors. It's tempting to think of that as a design flaw but more likely it's designed to be mass produced and reversible, the cost of making two (or more) configurations being much higher than the occasional confused user. You could argue this only enhances the metaphor as a lot of design issues occur when things are optimised for the company and not the user.

al_borland 10mo ago
I still see this as a design flaw, even if it explains why it was done. They save a little in manufacturing, and then thousands of people per day end up using it wrong for decades, in the case of a high traffic door, like at a mall. Related… this is one of my favorite Far Side comics. https://fifetli.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/screen-shot-2019-01-15-at-8.26.48-am.png?w=900 https://fifetli.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/scr...
gtowey 10mo ago
Wouldn't the solution to make the door so different handles can fit on both sides and then the installer can simply put the correct handle on each side as needed? Surely that is just as much of a manufacturing efficiency improvement.