Chapter 5
Summary
This chapter breaks down human errors into two main categories, slips and mistakes, and then breaks the category of slip down further into the following categories: capture errors, description errors, data-driven errors, associative activation errors, loss-of-activation errors and mode errors.
Norman also discusses how to detect slips and then relates slips to the design process to improve design. He then presents the idea of wide, deep, shallow and narrow structures in relation to tasks and provides some examples.
In several sections of the chapter Norman discusses the human mind, focusing on human thought and the different behaviors of the conscious and subconscious.
At the end of the chapter he relates his different explanations on errors and the thought process to the design process and the use of forcing functions, a kind of constraint that makes it so that a failure at one stage prevents the user from moving on to the next stage. With several examples he highlights the importance of minimizing the nuisance value while retaining the safety value.
Discussion
As with the other chapters, I found myself nodding as I read through the different types of slips and the different examples presented throughout the chapter. I especially liked the section that linked mistakes to social pressure. It is something I would not have thought of initially that can actually play a big role in making mistakes out in the field.
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