Name: Adam Waxman's review of The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
Item: The Design of Everyday Things
Rating: 4
Author: Adam Waxman

Donald A. Norman

Design doesn't have to complicated, which is why this guide to human-centered design shows that usability is just as important as aesthetics. 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. The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how — and why — some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.

Revised and Expanded Edition

The Design of Everyday Things

Anyone who designs anything to be used by humans — from physical objects to computer programs to conceptual tools — must read this book, and it is an equally tremendous read for anyone who has to use anything created by another human. It could forever change how you experience and interact with your physical surroundings, open your eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design, and raise your expectations about how things should be designed.

feyza nur

Sam Skurka

The phenomenon called learned helplessness may help explain the self- blame. It refers to the situation in which people experience failure at a task, often numerous times. As a result, they decide that the task cannot be done, at least not by them: they are helpless. They stop trying. If this feeling covers a group of tasks, the result can be severe difficulties coping with life. In the extreme case, such learned helpless- ness leads to depression and to a belief that the person cannot cope with everyday life at all. Sometimes all that it takes to get such a feeling of helplessness is a few experiences that accidentally turn out bad. The phenomenon has been most frequently studied as a precursor to the clinical problem of depression, but it might easily arise with a few bad experiences with everyday objects.

A device is easy to use when there is visibility to the set of possible actions, where the controls and displays exploit natural mappings. The principles are simple but rarely incorporated into design. Good design takes care, planning, thought. It takes conscious attention to the needs of the user.

Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principles, the examples, and the lessons of The Design of Everyday Things come from an understanding of people. They remain true forever.

Good design will have it all- aesthetic pleasure, art, creativity - and at the same time be usable, workable, and enjoyable.

Maulana Hilmi Arkan

Norman Don

Apple, Audi, Braun oder Samsung machen es vor: Gutes Design ist heute eine kritische Voraussetzung für erfolgreiche Produkte. Dieser Klassiker beschreibt die fundamentalen Prinzipien, um Dinge des täglichen Gebrauchs umzuwandeln in unterhaltsame und zufriedenstellende Produkte. Don Norman fordert ein Zusammenspiel von Mensch und Technologie mit dem Ziel, dass Designer und Produktentwickler die Bedürfnisse, Fähigkeiten und Handlungsweisen der Nutzer in den Vordergrund stellen und Designs an diesen angepasst werden. The Design of Everyday Things ist eine informative und spannende Einführung für Designer, Marketer, Produktentwickler und für alle an gutem Design interessierten Menschen. Zum Autor Don Norman ist emeritierter Professor für Kognitionswissenschaften. Er lehrte an der University of California in San Diego und der Northwest University in Illinois. Mitte der Neunzigerjahre leitete Don Norman die Advanced Technology Group bei Apple. Dort prägte er den Begriff der User Experience, um über die reine Benutzbarkeit hinaus eine ganzheitliche Erfahrung der Anwender im Umgang mit Technik in den Vordergrund zu stellen. Norman ist Mitbegründer der Beratungsfirma Nielsen Norman Group und hat unter anderem Autohersteller von BMW bis Toyota beraten. „Keiner kommt an Don Norman vorbei, wenn es um Fragen zu einem Design geht, das sich am Menschen orientiert.“ Brand Eins 7/2013 „Design ist einer der wichtigsten Wettbewerbsvorteile. Dieses Buch macht Spaß zu lesen und ist von größter Bedeutung.” Tom Peters, Co-Autor von „Auf der Suche nach Spitzenleistungen“

Psychologie und Design der alltäglichen Dinge

Joasia Fidler-Wieruszewska

Dizajn to seria wspaniałych i ekscytujacych wyzwań, a każde z nich stwarza nową szanse. Jak wszystkie wielkie dramaty, obfituje emocjonalne wzloty i upadki, góry i doliny. Najlepszym produktom udaje się wydobyć z zapaści i trafć na szczyt.

Proces tworzenia produktu jest skomplikowany i trudny, Ale według mnie to właśnie dlatego daje taką satysfakcję. Wspaniale produkty przechodzą przez wiele prób. Zaspokojenie milionów p0- trzeb wymaga umiejętności i cierpliwości. Niezbędne jest połączenie zaawansowanych kompetencji technicznych, świetnych umiejet- ności biznesowych oraz rozwiniętych zdolności interpersonalnych do pracy z wieloma różnymi grupami osób zaangażowanych w to przedsięwzięcie - każda z nich ma bowiem własne cele i każda  jest przekonana, że to jej oczekiwania są najważniejsze.

W dzisiejszym wyczulonym na ekologię świecie trzeba brać pod uwagę pełny cykl życia produktu. Jakie są środowiskowe koszty materiałów, procesu produkcji, dystrybucji, serwisowania i na- praw? Kiedy przychodzi czas na wymianę sprzętu, jaki wpływ na środowisko wywiera jego recykling lub inna forma ponownego wykorzystania?

Dobry dizajn prowadzi do powstania wspaniałych produktów, z których użytkownicy czerpią radość. Zły dizajn przyczynia się do tworzenia rzeczy niepraktycznych, które rodzą w użytkownikach frustrację.

Wszystko, czego nie stworzyła natura, zostało zaprojektowane.

Jessica Sutherland 

Adam Waxman

Timeo Williams

Decent book, detailing some hidden secrets about design to a novice. An important repeating element in this book was that added technology does not necessarily make the product better. It's also very important to take a human-centric view of the product, as well as the constraints to come up with the best designs.

too long for what it is, but norman is still a g. would def marry him if i was into that

Akash Samant

Laura Mauler

This was written in a decade before authors learned how to write stimulating non-fiction.

Aamna

When they say this book will change the way you see the world, they're not exaggerating.

Tanner Christensen

Norman’s timeless book is a must-read for anyone interested in or working within design. Design of any variety: the design of furniture, software, mechanical things, buildings and the floor plans within them. Even those who design teams, organizations, or code, would benefit from reading (and re-reading this book).

If you want to truly understand what it means to design something—and get a glimpse into the process professional designers utilize for doing their job well—you must read this book.

I say the book is timeless in that the lessons it conveys are as much. In order to maintain a level of understanding for readers of all ages and interests, however, Norman has updated the book with more contemporary examples of the otherwise timeless design methodologies and philosophies he expands on within the book’s pages.

Highly recommended as regular reading. Re-visiting yearly is every-other-year as a reminder of what it means to design well.

matej yangwao

** spoiler alert **
           Good book on fundamental understanding how to evaluate design choices, what has leads to particular decision and how to collect feedback &c. Book describes design process in nutshell what's steps should be taken..

I'll finish it later, so far great!:)


>When something has a sophisticated design, you'd most likely not use it, but when the design is simple, you'd love to use it.

>Many designs are overlooked by users, and this is because the designer has successfully made the product easy to use.

>Affordance is the relationship that exists between the components of an item and the functions of the agents that define how the thing may be used to accomplish its goal. A chair, for example, provides support, which is why it can be used for sitting, as opposed to a pin, which cannot be used for sitting.

>Visibility: A user's ability to manage changes rapidly is facilitated by the visibility of hints and information. When a designer creates anything that is different from the traditional products that people are used to, there must be visible information that allows people to understand how to operate the innovation quickly and simply.

>Mappings are the link that connects a command to the controls that have been allocated to it. When the mappings associated with controls are described in a manner that users can understand, it makes design much easier to do.

>A brilliant solution to the wrong problem can be worse than no solution at all: solve the correct problem. 〜 Donald A. Norman

>Feedback is essential in the development of any design. A large number of designers fail to recognize the importance of user input, resulting in a lack of understanding of what users think about a product.

>Conceptual models: These are simplified examples that provide a general idea of what an item is capable of. It provides a short overview of what is anticipated of a certain activity.

>Mental models: The term refers to when a design has been developed in a shape or form that makes it difficult to make errors since there is little possibility for it to happen in the first place.

>The way people respond to a design flaw is mostly the result of a misinterpretation of the action and a confluence of circumstances. It has been observed that oftentimes, individuals attribute design flaws to their own lack of skill, even when the flaw has absolutely nothing to do with their ability.

>Designers should minimize the amount of potential errors and make errors reversible as much as possible.

>Humans have a lot of preconceived notions about the world. They are particularly susceptible to making design errors when they have a misunderstanding of certain concepts. Because of a series of coincidences, we often assign the incorrect reason to a problem. When anything goes wrong, we look for a reason to attribute it to without considering whether the cause is correct or incorrect. This causes us to place the blame on the incorrect item and makes it difficult to discover a solution.

>There are seven stages of actions that explain the way people do things:
• Forming the goal: the point where you create your plan
• Forming the intention: how you plan to execute your goal
• Specifying an action: the act that starts your plan
• Executing the action: execute the first step in building your design
• Perceiving the state of the world: make findings about your target market
• Interpreting the state of the world: your feedback about your target audience will determine your best move
• Evaluating the outcome: why you try out your design in the real world

>The Gulf of Evaluation is the area where you attempt to determine what occurred. You want to know how much work it will take to interpret the physical condition of a device and how well the interpretations will be met. For example, mobile app developers roll out beta versions of apps to receive feedback.

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 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.

I started working in UX only recently with no design background and this book has helped me a lot to think critically about designs in my everyday life. It helped me develop a ‘third eye’ when it comes to usability and design. The examples the author mentioned were very interesting and thought provoking.

Rahma Ali

Albert Dong

Enjoyable read but it got quite technical towards the middle and end. Plenty of applicable knowledge in this book and it can easily be used as a college textbook. A good starting point for those who wish to build their vocabulary in talking about product design

Just a heads up. Reading this will make you change the way you look at objects, elements and designs in general. This book has the power to awaken your inner design and art critique no matter who or what you are.

Such thought provoking and interesting examples from the real world and how different design principles should be used in physical as well as digital products is one of the core aspects of this book.

If you work as a designer then this book is a no brainier. The author starts from delving into the memory patterns, human cognitive psychology and tries to understand how humans perceive the world. It also includes critiques of everyday things in life and makes us better judges of good designs. Definitely a must read this one.

Ben Jenkins

Gives good design principles and is interesting at times but is:
- too long by half
- repetitive
- written like a boring textbook at times
- extremely dated
For the last one, maybe I should've read the updated edition, but it's like 70 pages longer and the book was already too long. 

Big meh.

Roberta Falco

Un ingegnere che mi sta simpatico e non sembra misogino, la conto come vittoria personale.

Nelson Zagalo

This "Revised and Expanded Edition" is a must read for everyone working in Interaction Design. If you read the previous edition, put it aside, and use this one instead. This is not a simple update of the book, it was completely revised and adapted to a view of the world that takes into account User Experience.

If the first edition was an important addition to the discussion of interface design, this Revised and Expanded Edition completed the book with in depth knowledge of the last 20 years on Interaction Design and the last 10 years on human emotion and cognition, transforming the book in an obligatory read for any academic and practitioner. 

Read Norman own words to understand changes introduced: "When I started, I assumed that the basic principles were still true, so all I needed to do was update the examples. But in the end, I rewrote everything. Why? Because although all the principles still applied, in the 25 years since the first edition, much has been learned. I also now know which parts were difficult and therefore need better explanations. In the interim, I also wrote many articles and six books on related topics, some of which I thought important to include in the revision. For example, the original book says nothing of emotion or the importance of appearance, pleasure, and what has been come to be called "user experience" (a term that I was among the first to use, when in the early 1990s, the group I headed at Apple called itself "the User Experience Architect's office"). This needed to be here."

Adam

After hearing about this one for well over a decade, I decided to give it a shot. If I had read this one when it came out, it might have hit much closer to the target. As it stands now, I's mostly a refresher of things already heard. Now -- I wouldn't be surprised if wherever I heard them from were originally from this book, as it is a design classic.

Dave Perkins

Definite slog, but you can’t deny the impact of the principles of what he sets out.

Irene Alegre

Offers valuable insight on product design, which will definitely help me in my new career path, but boy did it repeat itself – over, and over, and over. 

You keep thinking: "I got this, Don. Like, 50 pages ago. Maybe 100, who knows. It's been so long"

The book is not that long, but it feels that way. I'd suggest you find a nice summary of it. It should be enough.

Angel Martinez

Took me a while to get thru the book because tho the language was accessible, the material was quite dense... especially for someone with no background in design LOL! Still consider this to be essential reading for anyone who wants to create anything with the needs of another human being in mind

Karl Fernandes

Essential reading for anyone serious about design. Although most of the examples here pertain to industrial design, the same principles apply equally to product design too.

Lissa Aguilar

excellent read!! especially if your interested in psychology and design

Barry Hess

So I only gave this book a "liked it" score. Why? I started in on it hard due to great accolades from various friends. I burnt myself out. I burnt myself out so much that it took me a couple years to finish it. In the end, this is the type of book that should be read slowly and studied. I went in with the wrong attitude and came out with a poor result. Given time I may read it again to get a better handle on its insights, which are numerous and interesting.

Bryan Maniotakis

The quintessential book for designs and design lovers. A must read.

Maria

еееее, конец

что я могу сказать - не то чтобы книга бесполезная. нет, какие-то идеи из нее действительно фундаментальны и важны - что если пользователи постоянно совершают одну и ту же ошибку, это ошибка не пользователя, а дизайнера; что если обычное устройство, типа водопроводного крана, требует инструкции - это плохой дизайн и т.п.

но эти вещи легко уместились бы в 100-150 страниц и избавили бы читателя от остальных ненужных двухсот

три пункта, которые раздражали меня всю дорогу:

1) отсутствие логики повествования. тема дверей всплывала раза три-четыре в разных местах, при этом каждый раз про них говорилось одно и то же. с кранами то же самое. принципы дизайна он тоже повторил раза три в разных местах. автор не шел ни от частного к общему, ни от общего к частному - ощущение набора идей, которые запихнул в коробку и несколько раз встряхнули. подзаголовки глав тоже ни о чем не говорили - скажем. прочитав содержание, нельзя было понять, о чем тут будут говорить. в общем, как редактор я фрустрирована

2) очень хлипкая научная база. автор пытался что-то писать о нейробиологии и психологии внимания, но очень скупо, по верхам, без примеров и в неожиданных местах. поэтому все вещи, которые удалось запомнить по прочтении, скорее базируются на здравом смысле и наблюдениях, а не на научных фактах

3) реально заебали примеры техники из прошлого века. первые раза три это, может быть, смешно и трогательно, но на десятом упоминании видеомагнитофона или кассетного плеера ты уже начинаешь орать. отдельно начинали подбешивать мечты автора о будущем, которые он не скупился снабжать эмоциями - "представьте себе это фантастическое устройство, с которого можно будет читать гипертекст, открывая сноски одним кликом" - ну охуенно, конечно, особенно если читаешь эти строки именно с такого устройства! главу про компьютеры я вообще пропустила - во-первых, сложно восторгаться дизайном первого макинтоша по сравнению с компьютерами, управляемыми с консоли, если ты, сука, не видел в глаза ни одного, ни другого. во-вторых, никакие из описанных претензий к создателях харда и софта уже неактуальны. автор щедро полил их грязью - "компьютерщики делают технику для себя, совершенно не думают о пользователе". при том, что в современном мире дизайн и юзабилити встали во главу угла именно в ИТ, и именно ИТ сделало из юзабилистов отдельную профессию, которая потом стала переходить в другие сферы. 

я понимаю, что автору в его мохнатом году сложно было это все предположить, но на мой взгляд, если уж пишешь книгу про "дизайн привычных вещей", то бери привычные вещи - те же самые двери, краны, стулья, чайники - и не лезь в сферу техники, которая меняется кардинальным способом каждый год. очень глупо разбирать дизайн какого-то приложения - да пока ты допишешь книгу, ему на смену придет сотня других

в общем, спасибо книге за фундаментальные 3-4 идеи. и стыд и позор за почти 400 страниц.

Clara Jo

After nearly a year I’ve finally gotten around to finishing this book, mainly due to the fact that Norman’s writing style is at times akin to listening to an overly verbose, information-dense, and painfully long podcast. But I can't discredit the wisdom of his words — looking past these stylistic shortcomings reveals core principles in human centred design and user experience optimization that I found conceptually fascinating. It's made me look at products (digital or otherwise) in a different light. The ideas he puts forth, coupled by (though outdated) in depth examples of flawed design were incredibly ahead of the times when published in the late 1980s. I just wish they were communicated more succinctly.

(3.75ish, not quite a 4)

Maggie Delano

This book covers important fundamentals of design, and is worth the read for that alone. I think it would have been more helpful for me to read this book earlier in my career, as many of the chapters were preaching to the choir, and there were only a few morsels of new insights in most of the chapters. Nonetheless, good to have read it and it will be a handy reference.

Jessica Sutherland &
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

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