The design of everyday things

257 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 2002 by Basic Books.

ISBN:
978-0-465-06710-7
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
215302602
Goodreads:
840

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First, businesses discovered quality as a key competitive edge; next came service. This title reveals how smart design is the next competitive frontier. 'The Design of Everyday Things' is a primer on how and why some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

19 editions

Review of 'The design of everyday things' on 'GoodReads'

Whenever programmers ask other programmers for book suggestions, there's always some smartass that says something like "The Art of War" because of blah blah blah about corporate politics. Hoo boy you're clever, you suggested a non-programming book, way to not play by the rules. You really march to the beat of your own drum there, slick.

Similarly, I constantly see "The Design of Everyday Things" suggested in these kinds of conversations. I think it's supposed to give engineers great insights into design and how humans interact with objects around them. This is supposed to change our outlook for the software we build for people.

Well, I don't think it did that at all. Really, the only thing to take away in that regard is "think about how people use your software". In other words, I think a great many UX-centered books are vastly superior in this regard.

That's not to …

Review of 'The psychology of everyday things' on Goodreads

1) "Would you like a pocket-size device that reminded you of each appointment and daily event? I would. I am waiting for the day when portable computers become small enough that I can keep one with me at all times. I will definitely put all my reminding burdens upon it. It has to be small. It has to be convenient to use. And it has to be relatively powerful, at least by today's standards. It has to have a full, standard typewriter keyboard and a reasonably large display. It needs good graphics, because that makes a tremendous difference in usability, and a lot of memory---a huge amount, actually. And it should be easy to hook up to the telephone; I need to connect it to my home and laboratory computers. Of course, it should be relatively inexpensive."

2) "Much of our knowledge is hidden beneath the survace of our minds, …

None

The book gives an analysis of what makes an object easy and enjoyable to use, full of entertaining examples and counterexamples, as well as guiding principles to use. It's a fun and relatively quick read, and it's already paid for itself - I immediately started applying things I learned here in my work.

That said, it starts to drag toward the end and could easily have been shorter by a quarter to a third, and a few pages about theories of mental function seem to serve no purpose other than for the author to show off. Worse is the very last chapter of the book, where the author, writing in 1988, theorizes about the utter impossibility of operating any of the coming computerized, networked, hypertext-enabled, hopelessly-complicated devices of the future. The future turned out to be about a decade later and the feared total collapse of usability hasn't materialized. (To …

Review of 'The design of everyday things' on 'Goodreads'

Over 20 years old now and showing it's age a bit, but the points and principles are still very valid. This is a good book for anyone who makes anything that other people must use, whether it's documentation or computer games or machinery. The author examines factors that make a good, or bad, design and lays out some basic principles to help guide designers.

I didn't give it 5 stars because it's really getting quite dated in parts - especially the parts talking about computers - and they really should gave done a complete updated revision instead of just slapping a preface on the 2002 edition. Also, I did find the author got a bit repetitive; many of the examples were redundant and the book could probably have been slimmed down quite a bit. It would be nice to see a real new edition of this book with updated examples …

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Subjects

  • Design, Industrial -- Psychological aspects
  • Human engineering