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The Design of Everyday Things
The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition | Donald A. Norman
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 Donald A. 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.
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ShaaM
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Pickpick

Started it in Jan 2023, Finished in Feb 2024 and in between read like 1800 pages and different novels. Overall it's a book that should be read by every architect, software engineer, tester, designer, ui ux specialist.

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jen_the_scribe
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Mehso-so

I‘m so glad to be done. It was a love/hate relationship. It took forever to finish. Some anecdotes were interesting, & quite a bit that were, honestly, rather dull. This could‘ve been condensed by a lot, it‘s kind of repetitive. However, there were some important points & I did learn a lot. This is ideal for designers, engineers, anyone dealing with the design/manufacturing of any kind of product. Otherwise, it might be a VERY dull read.

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jen_the_scribe
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I DNFed this for a while, simply because my coursework was already jam packed with material on the topic of design, that I needed a break outside of that. I‘m back at it now, trying to finish this one before moving onto the newer design books in my TBR pile. It‘s a slow read but I‘ve committed to a chapter a day at least.

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mavey
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Hi there my lovely Littens! I'm an Architecture student in the second year of my course, any design or architecture students/architects/designers out here? Great to get to talk with you! Any book recommendations related to design or architecture?

Wesleypaker @mavey Hello There 2y
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jen_the_scribe

“…the visceral response is about immediate perception… Great designers use their aesthetic sensibilities to drive these visceral responses. For designers, the most critical aspect of the behavioral level is that every action is associated with an expectation… resulting in satisfaction or relief, disappointment or frustration. The reflective level… is where deep understanding develops, where reasoning and conscious decision-making take place.”

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jen_the_scribe

“The brain is structured to act upon the world, and every action carries with it expectations, and these expectations drive emotions… Cognition attempts to make sense of the world: emotion assigns value.”

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jen_the_scribe

“Two of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding.”

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jen_the_scribe

“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.”

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jen_the_scribe
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I believe I mentioned on here before that one of my goals this year is to read more design books (as I‘m studying Graphic Design). One of my instructors recommended this book during a lecture, and I just had to get it…

StaceGhost I read this for a class and loved it! 2y
jen_the_scribe @StaceGhost Good to know! 😊 2y
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BookishMe
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ssravp
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Pickpick

“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.”

zezeki This book was additional reading for one the classes I was taking! 5y
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PedestalNix
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Absolutely fantastic. Anyone who plans to build something to be used by another human should read this. It gives good, useful views on error, the process of goal-directed action, and usability generally.

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PedestalNix

If a design depends upon labels, it may be faulty.

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Martta
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Travelling again. This is such a interesting book to read as a designer. It started with the explanation of the difference between designers and engineers. I found it very informative although I still feel like I have no idea how engineers think and get through life in general. 😂 I also like Norman's way of writing.

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alisahar
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This semester's assigned reading.

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GoneFishing

Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.

KCorter Sounds like something you would like, @acorter. 8y
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MrBook
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Pickpick

This is a paradigm-shifting book; in fact, it's single-handedly created a whole new field: design psychology! I think Steve Jobs & Jonny Ives may have read this, and then went on to make incredible Apple products from it. Seriously. You will see man-made products in a whole new light--one of those once-you-see-it-you-can't-unsee-it moments. And you'll want to become an engineer, lol. Mind-blowing! #PairWith: Miller High Life, bottles up, cold.

Hornsby78 This sounds fascinating! Thanks for the review. 8y
she_barks During my first week at Microsoft (way back in the 90s) I was told this was required reading. It's one of the few "work" books that survived my basement purge. 8y
MrBook @Hornsby78 You're welcome 😁👍🏻! Glad I could be of service ☺️. @she_barks And it was required reading for my website development college class in 2000 😁🙌🏻! 8y
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bookwrm526 If you enjoy this you may also like the podcast 99% Invisible 8y
MrBook @bookwrm526 Oh, nice, thank you for the rec! I'll be checking it out 😁😎👍🏻! 8y
bookwrm526 @MrBook let me know what you think! 8y
MrBook Absolutely 😊👍🏻! 8y
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darby3
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Current reading.

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