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‘Things that make us smart’ by Donald Norman was originally published in 1993. The book develops the theme and concern raised in his book ‘Psychology of Everyday things’ (POET), first published in 1988. In POET, Norman proved how design of a certain object can help or hinder us in completing everyday activities like opening doors, operating fridge or drink machines. This book starts with this theme and takes a step forward to describe the complex interaction between human thoughts and the technology it creates.

As a cognitive scientist Norman talks about “mental tools” which he refers to as cognitive artifacts. According to Norman, artifacts allow us “to think better and more clearly” and expand our human knowledge. "There is only so much we can remember; only so much we can learn. But among our abilities is that of devising artificial devices-artifacts-that expand our capabilities. We invent things that make us smart."(p.3)Norman classifies these artifacts that aid cognition into the categories of physical artifacts i.e. pencils, calculators and computers and mental artifacts i.e. reading, arithmetic, logic, language.

These categories of artifacts are further subdivided into tools of Experiential Cognition/Learning and tools for reflective cognition/learning. The experiential mode of cognition leads to a state in which we perceive and react to the event around us, efficiently and effortlessly. The experiential mode according to Norman is often exploited by entertainment (p.15); it involves use of artifacts that “allow us to experience events as if we were there.”Reflective mode of cognition is that of comparison and contrast, thought, and decision-making. This is the mode that leads to new ideas and novel responses.

The learning process of a human mind is categorised into three different kinds by Norman. They are:

1. Accretion: Accretion is like gathering facts. This is how we add to our knowledge; learn new vocabulary or perhaps the spelling of an already known word.
2. Tuning: Tuning is about practicing what we already know. Shaping the knowledge structure in thousand of little ways.
3. Restructuring: forming the proper conceptual structures.
   

Accretion and Tuning according to Norman are tools of experiential mode but restructuring is considered a reflective mode. The experiential mode of performance is one of perceptual processing (pattern-driven or event-driven). In contrast, the reflective mode is conceptually-driven, top-down processing, like computation or logical deduction (p.30).


The power of cognitive artifacts to allow us to "overcome the limitations of brainpower" leads Norman to argue that "the real power of the human mind, today and in the future, lies with our technologies".(p.127) But things that can make us smart also make us dumb. Norman says that human mind is limited in capability. Technology has enhanced our capabilities and helped us think better and more clearly but at the same time it has far outstripped our understanding of them. Norman argues that this is mostly because technologies are being developed with a Machined-Centred Point of View rather than a Human-Centred Point of View. The machine-centred point of view emphasises complex, precise actions that ignore human skills and attributes. Norman’s key concern here is that most of the technology today take a machine-centred view of design of machines and totally ignore the understanding of people. “As a result, the technology that is intended to aid human cognition and enjoyment more often interferes and confuses than aids and clarifies.”(p.9)

According to Norman, cognitive artifacts work more in our favour if technologies are developed with human-centred view of design because it would emphasise interfaces that people find comfortable and compatible with their fundamental capabilities. Throughout the book Norman demands technology to be built with human-centred point of view. He believes that any technology that attempts to make you think like machine, because it’s easier to build a machine than to understand how the human mind really functions is going to have cons.


Norman believes that human intelligence has evolved from:

1. Episodic Memory: Remembering events that you’ve experienced.
2. Mimesis: The ability to act out or mime intentions, desires and wants.
3. Mythic: communication rich concepts and thoughts, stories and myths that provide explanations for events of life.
4. External representation: expand our abilities beyond what our biological heritage alone makes possible, through writing and other tools that use the affordance of environment to overcome the limitations of our brainpower.
   

What Norman is trying to explain in this chapter is that Human Mind is different from hard science, machines and animals because we are good at creating mental models(unlike machines), not at highly accurate repetitive task (like machines). We have self-awareness too unlike animals. Characteristic such as cooperative behaviour, social graces, and norms of social interaction makes us complex and unique in every way.

In the chapter “Predicting the Future”, Norman again points out “it is not just the technology, but the people who work with it.” When technology is first introduced, both the technology and the society have to adapt (for example telephone, Fax machines etc). Telephone when first introduced was considered to be a broadcast medium. Later on people realised it was a means of potential communication. Hence the mutual accommodation takes place. However, Norman says that a new technology introduces new problems. Problems such as invasion of privacy, issues with hackings etc are nothing new to us today. Do we want our personal data to be seen by others? Do we want others to manipulate our information? Norman says that it is not the question of whether the technology can be made to work or not. The question is how effectively or efficiently it is made to work with human. Same argument as he used before - the entertainment people use the experiential mode for entertainment at the cost of reflection; the programmers use reflection at the cost of experience.


Just as Mcluhan’s hot and cold medium, Norman also classifies technology into hard and soft technology. According to Norman, hard technologies are technologies where human must conform to rules of the technology. Soft technology is more flexible and adaptive. I found this chapter on Hard and Soft technology very confusion. I personally believe that technology is hard by nature because it is rule driven and not very adaptive. Technology implementation though can be soft. For instance, when designing technology if we understand that we are working with hard building blocks that can be arranged by us in different ways we are able to manipulate the technology more effectively.


In the final chapter "Technology is not neutral", Norman touches the discussion on man/machine and experiential/reflective again by saying "Each technology poses a mind-set, a way of thinking about it and the activities to which it is relevant, a mind-set that soon pervades those touched by it, often unwittingly, often unwillingly" (p. 243) According to Norman, machines are not capable of reflection like people. A machine does not have an internal representation of knowledge and the ability to examine, modify and compare its representations (Compositional representation medium).


In chapter 2 Norman reminds us of the motto of the 1933 Chicago World fair- “Science Finds, Industry Applies, man Conforms”. That was a machine-centred point of view. The key point of the book is to send a message that it is time to revolt. People shouldn’t conform and we cannot confirm either. It’s the technology who should confirm and science to study and people who should propose.


The book is a great read to understand and analyse the relationship between technology and cognitive ability of a human. Norman wrote this book 15 years ago and we have witnessed a great deal of technological changes within those years. But surprisingly, so little has changed in the areas discussed in this book, i.e. becoming more human centric. Therefore, the issues raised in this book are still valid (except some technology examples which seem to be outdated) and still needs attention from designers and businesses involved in technology production.