The Design of Everyday Things • Don Norman • 1988
On Knowledge in the World and Knowledge in the Head
In Short
The knowledge someone uses to perform an action can live in both the head and in the world. Pay attention to the design possibilities for both.
In Depth
In a slight turn away from cognitive psychology, Norman puts forward the idea that knowledge lives both in our head and in the world.
Knowledge in the world acts as its own reminder. It can help us recover structures that we otherwise would forget. Knowledge in the head is efficient: no search and interpretation of the environment is required. In order to use knowledge in the head we have to get it there, which might require considerable amounts of learning. Knowledge in the world is easier to learn, but often more difficult to use. And it relies heavily upon the continued physical presence of the information; change the environment and the information is changed. Performance relies upon the physical presence of the task environment. (p.80)
While most of the book focuses on how the human mind acts upon the world, the idea of knowledge in the world recognizes that the ways that the world can act upon us. This idea can be found more prominently in philosophies of interaction that diverge from Norman’s, and I think it’s a useful reminder on the power of context beyond the the cognition of a single actor.