[Sigia-l] Human-Centered Design 99% bad

[Anne Miller]

Oh dear... the Don is dead... long live the Don (Norman, not Bradman!)

Activity = the interaction between the needs and capabilities of people +
the possibilities and constraints on action inherent in the environment. 

Jens Rasmussen, Kim Vicente and many others argue that we are much better
off designing to make the possibilities and constraints in the environment
visible so that people can create their own activity to suit their own
particular situations and contexts. This is fact the ecological approach
that Don Norman actually started with in "The design of everyday things". 

Alexander Johansen's viola example is illustrative. It’s the interaction
between the violist's body (dimensions of arms/legs/shoulders etc) and the
viola (its shape and weight) that makes it easier to play lightly and fast
on the shoulder. It’s the same interaction between cellist's, the bassist's
body and the cello / double bass that makes those instruments easier to play
between the legs. The activity across the entire string section is exactly
the same. It's arguably exactly the same for banjos, guitars, zithers, and
those instruments played on the knees plus any other instrument that can be
plucked or bowed. Trumpets, trombones, flutes, clarinets, saxophones,
flugelhorns are constrained not to be plucked or bowed - these instruments
afford a different sort of activity - sound familiar!

The chicken and egg question is what came first the people, the activity or
the artefact. This of course is a pointless question, they all came
together!




Cheers
A



Dr Anne Miller
Group Leader
Patient Safety Research Group
Key Centre for Human Factors
University of Queensland
Ph: 61 7 3365  4543
Email: amiller at humanfactors.uq.edu.au