The Design of Everyday Things

Essential reading for all engineers and designers, even software (GUI)

I have given a copy to each engineer, designer and tech writer in my group, and I give a copy to each new employee we bring in.

Essential reading for anyone designing anything that other folks have to use, covering basic ergonomics, mistake proofing (these days called "Poka Yoke"), and just general common sense design. Thoughtful and considerate design is essential to honoring engineering codes of ethics, personal integrity as an engineer, and as a Christian, I consider these aspects of design part of our mandate to love our neighbor and to honor God in our work.

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Great boook

Great book

Great book (B)

Great book (B)

Good for the masses, great for aspiring designers

Keep it simple, stupid. Don Norman shows us the dark side of "innovation," a flashing, screaming wasteland of bright, shiny bells and whistles. Much as Charles Panati describes blender manufacturers' mindless button frenzy and iron manufacturers' hilarious attempt to cluster zillions of holes into household irons (soaking shirts in the name of progress) in his "Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things," Norman pokes fun at the false idolatry to which the design world so frequently falls prey, championing beauty over power. But Norman quickly goes a step further, challenging frivolous designers to make functional products for real people.

Norman does a fantastic job of practicing what he preaches. The entire book is ostensibly about doors, phones and light switches, but has vast implications for even the most complex systems. Norman creates a simple metaphor for user interface design by focusing on familiar objects and offering many pertinent anecdotes.

Norman's argument to design for the lowest common denominator may threaten our wild, inner dreamer. But, as a cognitive psychologist whose field studies include airline disasters and the Three Mile Island nuclear crisis, Norman is hedging his bet. To err is human, so we must prepare for the worst. That is not to say he disapproves of elegant design; to the contrary, Norman believes that form can actually benefit from good function. The fact is that if it doesn't work, odds are you won't be looking at it all that much longer. Or, you'll be paying for it in Tylenol.

Consumers have almost as much to gain from Norman's insights as do designers; only the most extremely conscientious shopper, or perhaps the most masochistic, could afford not to question his or her strategies and impulses on the showroom floor. I hope that you enjoy this well written, insightful, and occasionally visionary book as much as I did.

Design of Everyday Things

I wish to start by acknowledging that Donald Norman did a good job identifying flaws in other designs but interestingly failed to recognise the imperfection in his own style of presentation of texts and images in the book, which at some point made this rather classic design book difficult to read. This led me into asking if there ever is a perfect design within our human environment. However, I found an enormous amount of knowledge about the psychology needed in designing products, as a young software developer. It is a great book, and anyone involved in designing any form of product for human use should read it. After reading this book, it became clear how designers often designed products with the intention of having all users¿ actions with their system as precise as possible. Norman looks at the kinds of errors people make in using gadgets and discusses how designers can plan to eliminate these errors. In as much as a huge part of the book is outdated, it made me wonder why some of those very undesirable designs are still been seen around today. Perhaps Norman succeeded in making me paranoid about designs around me, but in a similar way, I hope that it reflects in the way I design my software applications. A few times in the book, Norman invited thoughts from the supposed `poor¿ designers cited in the book about the reason and logic behind their various designs. I suggest it would have been of much value if that was done for all the examples cited. That I believe would have created a fair representation of ideas from both Norman and the designers. Finally, my conclusion after reading Norman¿s book is that, a design is not perfect until a user¿s actions on that product match the designer¿s intended actions.

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