The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things

by Karl Wiegers

Have you ever noticed how many products appear to be designed by someone who has never used a product of that kind before? Nearly everyone has encountered websites, software apps, cars, appliances, and other products that made them wonder what the designers were thinking. The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things presents more than 160 examples of products that violate nine fundamental design principles, along with suggestions for improving many of the flawed user interfaces and other design problems. These examples of thoughtless design reveal 70 specific lessons that designers ought to heed as they craft the user experience, grouped by these design
* Make the product easy and obvious to use.* Consider realistic usage scenarios.
* Consider a wide range of usage environments.
* Make it hard to make a mistake.
* Provide meaningful feedback.
* Don't waste the user's time.
* Design for the user's convenience.
* Accommodate the range of human variation.
* Place the minimum mental burden on the user.
This book describes numerous specific practices for enhancing product usability through usage-centered design strategies. You'll also see more than 40 products that exhibit particularly thoughtful designs, the kinds of products that surprise and delight users. Whether you're a designer, a product development manager, or a thoughtful and curious consumer, you'll find The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things engaging, informative, and insightful.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Paperback

Published February 16, 2021

About the author

Karl Wiegers is Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company in Portland, Oregon. He has a PhD in organic chemistry. Karl is the author of 14 books, including Software Requirements Essentials (with Candase Hokanson), Software Development Pearls, The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things, Software Requirements (with Joy Beatty), More About Software Requirements, Successful Business Analysis Consulting, and a forensic mystery novel titled The Reconstruction.

Karl has also written many articles on software development, design, project management, chemistry, military history, consulting, and self-help, as well as 18 songs. He has delivered hundreds of training courses, webinars, and conference presentations worldwide. When he's not at the keyboard, Karl enjoys wine tasting, volunteering (library and Meals on Wheels), playing guitar, recording songs (hear them at https://www.karlwiegers.com/songs.html), military history, and traveling.

You can reach Karl at https://www.ProcessImpact.com or https://www.KarlWiegers.com.

Reviews

[Anatolij Grigorjev · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not for me. I'm not quite sure who its for, actually

The first chapter of the book establishes specific conditions by which the author will select examples of "thoughtless design" to write about - he is promising to stick to things that
* seem genuinely thoughtless (and not specifically setup that way to the benefit of somebody like the company)
* that are easy to fix with the most minor of adjustments (minimal care and customer centric view)

Outside of a few examples across the entire book, most of the ones provided satisfy 1 to 0 of these 2 preconditions and read more like a bunch of personal gripes of a very specific persona, rather than more broadly applicable issues with the core designs. It's boring and frustrating to read quite a few because they are neither "minor" design specifics, nor an issue that is guaranteed to affect a large customer segment.
Bad design examples are the jumping off point for useful "design lessons" to take away - not quite sure who those are for since they all take the form of extremely bland abstract statements like "try your product yourself", "iterate on your design" and a bunch of other obvious things
Perhaps the book can help those who have been horizontally moved into the design function of a large organization that was never customer-centric, but in that case the foundational Norman book about design of everyday things is likely a more useful starting point

[Randolph King · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent and humorous guide to design principles. It is filled with examples of both good and failed design in things we use every day. Karl presents almost 500 design practices with a good discussion and examples in products. He then provides 70 design lessons.

I've always thought Karl a very readable writer who makes lessons easy to understand and to remember. This should be a must-read for anyone in product design, whether technical or not.

[Richard Dinerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read and comprehend. Summarizes the material nicely. Expected a bit more in-depth analysis. Worth the read.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting, tho some parts (primarily about software development) went into too much detail. I am now more aware of design elements, both thoughtful and thoughtless, as I encounter various items in my life.