Design for a Better World
Don Norman
“Design with the community and as much as possible support designs by the community.
What I like
The book borrows and builds off of a lot of Don Norman’s previous ideas, but with a wider scope
The book challenges many big problems in the world today, particularly environmental and societal issues such as government, education and our financial system
The chapters are short and easy to read, with each chapter being about 10 pages max
There is a nice blend of Psychology and Design in this book, like most of Don Norman’s book
What’s missing
Big ideas like those in this book can come off as idealistic, but I think there’s a lot of thought put into the proposed solutions, which borrow from a lot of other people’s work
Key Topics
Human behavior, Systems thinking, Artificial, Meaning, Environmentalism, Complexity, Incremental Innovation
Review
Design for a Better World is a book that addresses and explores big complex problems in the world and how to approach them. It’s not so much a cookbook or a list of recommendations as it is an open exploration of the many interconnected components that make our world increasingly more complex and demanding. Don Norman’s books Emotional Design and The Design of Everyday Things were focused on smaller systems in our day-to-day lives. This new book zooms way out and looks at some of the biggest problems impacting the world today and how they are connected. The big idea is that most systems we interact with in the world are artificial- they were created by humans: time, currency, the work week, electricity- all these things were man made and they have created unintended consequences. Because they are artificial by design, however, means that that they can be changed by design. This book debunks a lot of assumptions around how systems in the world work which have guided humans through time, for example, that the world’s resources are unlimited. At the root of these big complex problems is human behavior, which is the most difficult thing to change.
What I love about this book (and any of Don Norman’s books) is the blend of psychology and design, which makes the idea that human behavior is the root of the world’s problem all the more interesting- doubly so in a capitalistic society which is driven by the activity of producers and consumers. Science could propose all kinds of solutions to make the systems we live in every day more sustainable or humanity-centered, but at the end of the day it’s the consumers and businesses that need to change their habits. Expecting consumers to change their consumption habits (for example, switching from using an environmentally unfriendly air conditioner vs. dressing lighter) is not likely unless making that change becomes meaningful to them. Expecting producers to change their production habits (for example, switching from using environmentally unfriendly albeit cheap packaging materials vs. recyclable or decomposable packaging materials) will not happen without government regulation. The point is, that big changes take a long time, but if we want our planet’s global temperature to top rising, we need to make changes that reverse the effects, or at least slow them down dramatically.
There are a few big lessons that I took from this book that were helpful to understand. First, most systems we live in are artificial- they were created by humans- and because something is artificial, it can be changed by design. Second, complexity is abundant in the world, and simplicity exists in the mind- in order to help someone understand something complex we need to make it meaningful to them to make it simple- as people are always searching for meaning in the world. This quest for meaning can lead governments and businesses to make big decisions based on big numbers such as GDP, which are flawed by design. Meaning can also be inferred from stories which more accurately reflect the realities of problems that fly under the radar. Third, when it comes to dealing with big complex problems, it’s best to approach them modularly and incrementally (e.g. muddling through), as opposed to trying to solve them in one fell swoop. Trying to do things all at once creates a tightly-coupled solution, where if one part of the plan fails, it can damage other components of it. Where a lot of businesses focus on scaling up, many should consider scaling teams down in order tackle smaller challenges within their organization. Finally, one of the principles of human-centered design is designing with humans, particularly the people whom will be using your product. One of the principles of humanity-centered design is designing with a community of people for the sociotechnical systems that they live in day to day, and supporting the solutions they design for themselves.
If you like Don Norman’s writing at are interested in exploring some of the complexities of the world today, specifically how ancient systems designed into our day-to-day life are impacting our world and need to be changed, I’d recommend this book. It’s a great read with a lot of interesting implications.
Learnings
The science of design in the “sciences of the artificial” is that everything is artificial because it has been impacted by human behavior.
Most constructs that guide our day-to-day behavior are artificial, including those of the seasons and time.
Making something complex simple is often a matter of communication.
Cost/benefit and risk analysis are two ways that guide macro and micro-systemic decision making.
The GDP is a single number that is commonly used by economists to reflect the health of a country.
“The real insight into human behavior occurs when measurement is combined with stories.”
The 19th century allowed the US to industrialize through plastics and oil which has led to problems of the 20th century.
Biomimicry is when designs mimic patterns from nature.
Complex systems include a collection of feedback loops, feed-forward loops, and recursions.
Part of humanity-centered design is designing with not for the community impacted by the design.
Planners like to plan on how to solve big problems all at once, where searchers like to look for problems that can be fixed in a system and solve them incrementally.
One of the downsides of incremental innovation, or slow and deliberate design, is it lends itself to financial or time pressures.
Designers act like an orchestrator in projects, assuring that activities are aligned with the goals of the business as well as the users.
One of the jobs of a designer is to take a large complex process, and streamline it into something simple.
People are resistant to change, and change usually takes a long time to happen in society because of this.
People progress through their lives under the illusion of artificial systems like the week, school system, and political system.
A lot of our lives are dependent on the artificial benefits of machines.
Design is an applied profession for building and creating solutions to issues.
Human behavior is the root of most of today’s problems because even if we design most technological or environmental solutions, people may still not adopt them, or want to change.