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Norman, D. (1999). Chapter 3: The power of representation (p. 43-75).
In _Things that make us smart_. Cambridge: Perseus Books.
Without necessarily meaning to do so, Norman spends chapter 2
explaining what it is that the computer applications that Landauer, in
_The trouble with computers_, describes as phase two ought to be
doing. At the same time much of what he says is reminescent of
Winograd's and Flores's discussion of the linguistic and
representational powers of the computer. (Neither of them are
mentioned.)
Computers are powerful artifacts for manipulating representations.
They, properly designed, can make it easy to experiment with various
representations until one that transforms, as Norman says is
desirable, the information discovery task from a difficult reflective
one to an easy experiential one.
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