We really ran the gamut of topics this week at ErgonomicsinDesign.com.
We had two very practical articles. One on the very practical topic of how to
pack light and efficiently in your carry-on luggage so you don’t have to be “that
guy.” Then we had one on creating new words
when the ones we have don’t quite capture what you are trying to say. My favorite there is “disguision.”
Then we had two on self-delusion (as usual). The first one covered student evaluations of
their professors and how riddled with error they are. Students think that the easier something seems
to be to learn, the more effective their teacher was. But maybe it was just easy material. Or maybe they didn’t really learn it very
deeply.
The other one covered thinking in round numbers. Our working memory loves to chunk items into
groups to make them easier to remember.
We have top ten lists and categories for pets and genres of “pop music.” But that makes it harder to remember things
that fall through the cracks. McDonalds got trapped by its Dollar Menu because
inflation made the items too costly to only charge a dollar. But a “Dollar
twenty-five Menu” just doesn’t work.
So signing off for this week. See you all on Monday.
