A Reading Report of the Design of Everyday Things设计心理学

A Reading Report of the Design of Everyday Things

As a student of industrial design,I will often read some books about designing.Here I want to introduce one of the most famous book required reading for all designing students,which is Design Psychology.You may consider that to be an excellent designer,he must have a well knowledge of structural mechanics or a good sense of art.Actually,the most important subject we must learn is psychology.The best product of good design are always those products widely loved by consumers. Therefore,how to cater to the desire of consumers is an important part a designer must take into consideration.

Design is a complex endeavor,covering many different disciplines.Engineers design bridges and dams,electronic circuits,and news forms of materials.Many designers are artists,emphasizing aesthetics and pleasure.Others are concerned about cost.All in all,many different disciplines are involved in developing the products we use.But what a designing students always forget is psychology of the user.In fact,a product what the designer thinks is wonderful may bring many trouble to a user.That is because the user could not understand how the function work as well as the designer or the designer may ignore many small details when using the product.This is especially true in design of everyday things.If a designer could not think of himself as a user when designing a product,which means perspective taking,the design will definitely expose many problems when being used.

For instance,in design,it is important to show the effect of an action.Without feedback,one is always wondering whether anything has happened.Maybe the button wasn’t pushed hard enough;maybe the machine has stopped working;maybe it is doing the wrong thing.Without feedback,we turn equipment off at improper times or restart unnecessarily,losing all our recent work.Or we repeat the command and end up having the operation done twice,often to our detriment.It reminds me of the experience of using my induction cooker.it won’t feedback any signal when I switch it on.Since the water haven’t been boiled, I find it hard to know whether it is operated or no.This kind of details have nothing to do with the structure or operating principle.To avoid such design loopholes, the only method is to analysis the psychology of the user.From this example, we can guess that the importance of psychology in designing is much more essential than we thought.

As a matter of fact,the best designer must be the one who enjoys the life well ,who will pay attention to many interesting details in daily life.Therefore,what I must learn is not only concern about what the user think and what problem he will meet,but also how to find the details and surprise in my life.