Book Reading #8: Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 3
Summary
The third chapter mainly discusses how people remember things through their memory and through information presented in the world. Norman discusses the difference between declarative and procedural knowledge and how great precision is often not required in day to day activities. He also discusses the structure of memory and outlines three main categories to describe how we remember things: memory for arbitrary things, memory for meaningful relationships and memory through explanation. Near the end of the chapter Norman focuses on knowledge presented in the world through reminding and natural mappings and concludes by discussing the tradeoffs between knowledge in the world and in the head.

Discussion
Norman does a good job of making abstract ideas more concrete and finding engaging ways to present them to the reader. I enjoyed his example with the penny – I also saw this in my psychology text book last semester – and the short narratives he uses to better explain the different ways in which we remember. I also enjoyed the section about reminding. I jot down notes all the time to help me remember things and will often depend on only the signal aspect of a reminder to help me remember things. Like if I need to remember to go somewhere on my way home after class, I will throw whatever object is available in my car onto the driver’s seat. It may not have anything to do with where I need to go but just seeing it there tells me I need to remember, so then I do.