knowing what to do

In Donald Norman's chapter "Knowing What to Do" from his book The Design of Everyday Things, the author describes the significance of designing devices and machines in a way that effectively shows the relevant parts visible, provides a good display to communicate what those parts do, and gives the user feedback through an immediate effect following each action. For some of the objects that Norman describes, it seems like the only trouble would be deciphering how to use the item after the first time, it would not matter how confusing it might be. For example, the author discussed cabinet doors sometimes being tricky to open, but unless this is a highly frequented cabinet door by many new people, I think the aesthetic design may be more important the functionality, assuming the owner remembers how to use it after the first time. Other more highly trafficked things like office doors, however, demand intelligent design to make them easy to use. If electronic devices like high-def TVs, Tivo, and new car stereos were easy to design (which I am sure is not the case), then I am sure they would be much easier to use.