The Design of Everyday Things

Don Norman

Nov 2013 · Sold by Basic Books

About this ebook

The essential guide to human-centered design 
 
“Even more relevant today than it was when first published.”—Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO 

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. 

Ratings and reviews

I must admit that I only made it to the 50's, though I glanced ahead much further. I chose to read this book due to hearing an interview with the author on NPR. The book begins with interesting explanations about badly designed objects, but quickly devolves into a series of tenuously connected amateurish psychology essays that, ironically, overuse and abuse figures to illustrate simple ideas. The psychology bits are so superficial that the majority of readers will find the review to be painstaking rather than refreshing or informing. I simply was not intending on purchasing a textbook for personal reading, and feel that I have been substantially duped. I will likely finish the book and update my review, but a break is simply necessary to rejuvenate my tolerance for the dogged march that is the reading of this book.

This book is changing the way I think about designing UI's in software. I'm a programmer at a small shop who really doesn't have a specialized designer so I have to do it myself. This book has helped me immensely with thinking about the application flow and placement of elements on the screen

Great to see usability issues in everyday objects. A must have for any designer.

About the author

Don Norman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science and Psychology and founding director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego. He was an Apple Vice President, has been an advisor and board member for numerous companies, has received three lifetime achievement awards, and has three honorary degrees. His many books, including Emotional Design, have been translated into over 20 languages. He lives in San Diego, California.