Living with Complexity
内容简介
If only today’s technology were simpler! It’s the universal lament, but it’s wrong. We don't want simplicity. Simple tools are not up to the task. The world is complex; our tools need to match that complexity.
Simplicity turns out to be more complex than we thought. In this provocative and informative book, Don Norman writes that the complexity of our technology must mirror the complexity and richness of our lives. It’s not complexity that’s the problem, it’s bad design. Bad design complicates things unnecessarily and confuses us. Good design can tame complexity.
Norman gives us a crash course in the virtues of complexity. But even such simple things as salt and pepper shakers, doors, and light switches become complicated when we have to deal with many of them, each somewhat different. Managing complexity, says Norman, is a partnership. Designers have to produce things that tame complexity. But we too have to do our part: we have to take the time to learn the structure and practice the skills. This is how we mastered reading and writing, driving a car, and playing sports, and this is how we can master our complex tools.
Complexity is good. Simplicity is misleading. The good life is complex, rich, and rewarding—but only if it is understandable, sensible, and meaningful.
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作者简介
Business Week has named Don Norman as one of the world's most influential designers. He has been both a professor and an executive: he was Vice President of Advanced Technology at Apple; his company, the Nielsen Norman Group, helps companies produce human-centered products and services; he has been on the faculty at Harvard, the University of California, San Diego, Northwestern University, and KAIST, in South Korea. He is the author of many books, including The Design of Everyday Things, The Invisible Computer (MIT Press, 1998), Emotional Design, and The Design of Future Things.
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目录
1. Living With Complexity: Why complexity is necessary
2. Simplicity Is in the Mind
3. How Simple Things Can Complicate Our Lives
4. Social Signifiers
5. Sociable Design
6. Systems and Services
7. The Design of Waits
8. Managing Complexity: A Partnership
9. The Challenge
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读书文摘
特斯勒（Larry Tesler）说道，把系统的一部分变得简单，那么剩下的部分就会变得更复杂。这个原理就是今天所谓的“特斯勒的复杂守恒定律”。特斯勒形容这是一个平衡关系：使用户用起来更容易，意味着增加设计师或工程师的难度。
复杂的含义既非褒义也非贬义，而令人困惑就是贬义的。 应对复杂的关键是找到理解的两个方面:第一是事物的设计决定了它的可理解性；而是我们有自己的一套理解能力和技巧。
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