The Design of Everyday Things Part 2

1. "Designing well is not easy. The manufacturer wants something that can be produced economically. The store wants something that will be attractive to its customers. The purchaser has several demands. In the store, the purchaser focuses on price and appearance and perhaps on prestige value."
I found this passage very interesting because I never did realize the kind of pressure and restrictions a designer of products had. The designer must satisfy everyone in order to design a good product. That can be very hard to do with all the restrictions that designer has. Those include a budget that might not be that big, and with that budget they must make something attractive to the store and then the purchaser must like the appearance and the price of that product so there is a lot of pressure on the designer. A designer has a very tough job and must satisfy everyone which can be very difficult and I now realize that after reading this passage.

2. I think that this book continues to be influential 20 years later because technology has advanced so much and the world now has many different products. With these products people are still getting confused by the design and usability of the products. The advances of technology are just making things more difficult and we still continue to have the same problems that occurred in past years with technological advances. The design of products today are getting more complicated and nothing is being done about it just like the past.

3. The factors that I would have on a checklist for evaluating the design of a product would include the simplicity of the product, the durability, the visibility of the product by labeling features, and give opportunity for feedback. I would include the simplicity of the product because I would want everyone to be able to use my product with out having much confusion. If everyone can use my product I will be able to make a profit. The durability of a product is very important because no body likes a product that breaks easily. The visibility of a product is important because people need to see what they are doing so if they have labels for each button they will understand the product better and be able to use it best. In my mind feedback is a extremely important because with feedback you will be able to improve your product to fit the needs of the purchasers and that can only make your product better.