Knowledge+in+the+Head+and+in+the+World

**Knowledge in the Head and in The World**
Knowledge in the head and knowledge in the world are two very important concepts when considering design of products. These two ways in which knowledge can be categorized basically deal with the ways products are learnt and used by people.

Knowledge in the world basically draws on mapping and other mechanisms in the design of a product which allows persons to use these products without much learning required to use them. Knowledge is out there in the world of products, which is reffered to as the world and it is just up to us to get this knowledge into our heads. Somtimes it is easy to acquire this knowledge and sometimes it is not. An example of this from Donald Noorman in the Design of everyday things is one of the keyboard. He basically states once you get the knowledge of the keyboard into you head from the keys you will increase the rate in which we type. The knowledge which is present in the world is where the keys are located on the f and j key you have tiny notches and from that you can sort of know where your hands are at while you are typing. There is also the shape of keys which differs, this also allows for persons to know where there hands are at while they are typing. While these keys are not as explicit as the f and j key they still get the job done to some degree. Porducts which feautre a great deal of knowledge in the world are usually more easier to use by first time users. This is due to the fact that persons can really from this knowledge being portrayed to them, decipher functions and then operate these products. For example a soda can machine, if you had never seen or used one before, there is so much knowledge available on the machine in the world using one is not a problem.

Knowledge in the head however is very different from knowledge in the world. It is basically what we know or have learnt from experiences. It is said that products where there is a greater deal of knowledge in the head are more efficient and that is true, basically because once we can remeber this knowledge in our heads of how to use certain things it would only make sense for us to be very efficient at it. This can be reffered back to the keyboard example by Donald Norman, in while there is some degree of knowledge in the world, once this knowledge becomes knowledge in the head typing speeds increase.

These two forms of knowledge discussed above refer back to many things in which we talked about in class on design. From this we can decipher that maybe there are reasons why some products have more knowledge in the head or knowledge in the world than others. Things which are used by everyday society contain more knowledge in the world, this is because these products have to be user friendly, becuase of how society is based. If something is hard to use, people wont use it unless they have to. In relation it is ultimately the goal of every product creator to have their products used by as many people as possible and especially when creating products for mass usage. You can look on how many products for the general public which have failed over the years.Collectively there are probably many reasons why they have failed, but a big one in many cases is there design doesn't contain much knowledge in the world, in order to make the product user friendly.

On the other end of the spectrum there are products which are used by only a select few and these products contain more knowledge in the head. The reasons for this is basically becuase the creators only want these products to used by these persons who are very knowledgable in there use. So in order to achieve this they have to include a great deal of knowledge which must be learnt before operation can occur. For Example an airplane it is extremely difficult to fly an airplane and there must be alot of knowledge in the head before this can occur. The reason for this is you wouldn't want to create an airplane where it was so easy to fly anyone could do it due of the serious life risks involved in taking a peice of machinery into the air. There are so many things which can go wrong and which cannot be predicted that this appraoch would only make sesne.

The final set of products are products which feature a mix of both knowledge in the head and in the world. They have been created for basically an in between usage of a select few and the general public. A great example of this is the automobile, while this product is easy to learn how to use becuase of all the risks invlolved in operating one this product cant be extremely easy to use and that is why not all the knowledge for using this product is in the head or world but a mixture of both.

In conclusion we can see that products in everday life feature both knowledge in the head and world and there are reasons for this which we should really be greatful for and take into consideration when designing the products of the future.

Norman, Donald A. The design of everyday things. New York: Basic Books, 1998.
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