Gina Trapani’s post on Flashbake led me to Cory Doctorow’s discussion:
Every 15 minutes, Flashbake looks at any files that you ask it to check (I have it looking at all my fiction-in-progress, my todo list, my file of useful bits of information, and the completed electronic versions of my recent books), and records any changes [...]
Last Norman quote of the day: here Norman argues that designers should focus more on adding signifiers to their objects, rather than affordances, which may or may not be easily perceived or used. Signifiers, on the other hand, are obvious, and make use obvious.
People need some way of understanding the product or service, some sign [...]
More Norman:
Simplicity is not the goal. We do not wish to give up the power and flexibility of our technologies. The garage door opener may be simple, but it hardly does anything. If my cellphone only had one button it certainly would be simple, but, umm, all I could do would be to turn it [...]
Don Norman on “socializing our interactions with technology” (what sounds to me like a very Latour-ian phrasing):
The next peeve on the machines’ list, just after their dislike of people, is paper handling. They just can’t move paper about reliably and efficiently, especially things like tickets that their owners have touched. People don’t have any trouble [...]