The Design of Everyday Things

by Don Norman

Paperback, 368 pages

English language

Published Oct. 30, 2013 by Basic Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-465-05065-9
Goodreads:: 17290807

(16 reviews)

Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious—even liberating—book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints. The goal: guide the user effortlessly to the right action on the right control at the right time.

In this entertaining and insightful analysis, cognitive scientist Don Norman hails excellence …

In this entertaining and insightful analysis, cognitive scientist Don Norman hails excellence of design as the most important key to regaining the competitive edge in influencing consumer behavior. Now fully expanded and updated, with a new introduction by the author, The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how—and why—some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

1 edition

bwaber reviewed The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

An Enlightening but Slightly Anachronistic Look at Effective Design Methods

4 stars

This book provides an excellent, well-organized analysis of design methods that lead to pleasing and easy to use physical products. However this book is very much a product of its time (originally published in 1988 with a different title): it's extremely American/Western focused, pretty much ignores accessibility, and has little to say about digital interfaces. I did get a kick out of the section referencing expert systems for people to navigate terribly designed telephone interfaces, with strong echoes in people today working on using LLMs to, for example, help set up AWS servers.

People born after 1995 will probably have trouble following many of the product references as well, which is fairly important for understanding the approaches Norman advocates for. That being said, if you meet the age requirement this is a useful, thought-provoking book. Highly recommend.

phonner reviewed The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Review of The Design of Everyday Things

5 stars

If you've ever marveled at the effectiveness of IKEA instructions or complained that it wasn't your fault you couldn't remember how to operate the new washer/dryer, this book is for you. Endlessly thought-provoking and relevant, The Design of Everyday Things lays out Norman's theory of "human-centered design", which puts the user and their experience — their actual, not idealized nor proscribed, experience — at the center of the design process. A simple mantra is this: "It's not human error; it's bad design."

Everyone will find value in this book, but it's given me much to think about as a teacher and instructional designer: making knowledge discoverable, feedback and feedforward, affordances, forcing functions, and more. I'll return to these ideas, and this book, many times.