Living With Complexity

Reference Information: 
Title: Living With Complexity
Author: Donald A. Norman
Editors: The MIT Press (2010)

Chapter 1:
Summary: In the opening chapter of Norman's latest novel, his explains what exactly complexity is, and how it affects our everyday lives. He explains how poor design often leads to complexity, and provides several examples of complex designs. He ends the chapter discussing means of measuring complexity, such as how long it takes someone to master a task.

Discussion: Norman does a very good job of introducing complexity in his first chapter. The examples he used were thought out, and to the point.

Chapter 2:
Summary: In the second chapter of Living With Complexity, Norman discusses conceptual models, and how a good conceptual model can aid in making things easier to understand. He warns against featuritis, and talks about how simple looking products can often be highly complex.

Discussion: Norman's discussion of featuritis was incredibly insightful. We're having to deal with feature creep in our final project, so it's nice to see him discussing the matter.


Chapter 3:
Summary: In the third chapter of Living with Complexity, Norman discusses how with increased numbers, there is increased complexity. When trying to remember several different things, such as computer passwords, the complexity involves greatly each time you add a new item. Norman elaborates, discussing scaling problems, and how complexity increases exponentially, not linearly.

Discussion: This chapter remained interesting, although a lot of what was discussed seemed pretty straight forward or obvious. Overall however, it was still entertaining to read, and highly enlightening.

Chapter 4:
Summary: In his fourth chapter, Norman discusses social signals, and the inherent environmental cues that people pick up on. He discusses perceived affordances as well, and discusses several instances where cultural values actually end up complicating things further.

Discussion: As someone who has to drive from College Station to Washington DC every summer, I really appreciated his discussion on traffic. Some of his observations were incredibly insightful.