<story><title>The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes</title><url>https://elvischidera.com/2022-06-24-design-everyday-things/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>WalterBright</author><text>These kinds of things assume critical importance in the design of an aircraft cockpit.&lt;p&gt;For example, the lever that controls the landing gear has a little tire for the knob. The flap controls have a knob shaped like a flap. All so you know what the control is without needing to look (or the cockpit is filled with smoke).&lt;p&gt;The common theme with all these designs is they are driven by accidents. For some strange reason, humans are pretty bad at creating intuitive designs. It&amp;#x27;s only usage that makes it clear, and it always seems obvious in hindsight.&lt;p&gt;For example, aviation has standardized phrases for things, to avoid confusion. For decades, the maximum power setting on the engines was &amp;quot;takeoff power&amp;quot;. I kid you not. This was fixed after a crash caused by the pilot yelling &amp;quot;take off power&amp;quot; to do a go-round, and the copilot idled the engines. This was in civil aviation. The Air Force had to undergo a crash as well to change &amp;quot;takeoff power&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;The lead Boeing cockpit designer of the 757 explained to me that every intuitive cockpit feature was paid for in blood.</text></comment>
<story><title>The Design of Everyday Things – Book Summary and Notes</title><url>https://elvischidera.com/2022-06-24-design-everyday-things/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ChrisMarshallNY</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; Good design is harder to notice than poor design, partly because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;This is my goal. UX that gets out of the way. People shouldn&amp;#x27;t stop to admire the light switch. They should just flick it.</text></comment>