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The Design of Everyday Things

Donald A. Norman

4.19 · Rating details · 18,692 Ratings · 1,437 Reviews

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 an ...more

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Paperback, 240 pages

Published September 19th 2002 by Basic Books (first published 1988)

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Mar 21, 2008 David rated it it was amazing

After reading this you will never look at any man-made object the same. You will question everything from doors to tea kettles to the most sophisticated computer program. The next time you fumble with an answering machine, web page, or light switch you will think back to the lessons from this book. It is almost liberating once you can see beyond the design of everyday things.

I highly recommend this book for anyone. You absolutely must read it if you will ever be in a position to create something ...more

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Jan 13, 2013 Philip Mcallister rated it it was ok

For a book that a lot of people rave about as being a 'bible of usability', I have to say it was one of the worst written and designed books I have ever been unfortunate enough to read.

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Jun 18, 2010 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2non-fiction, 1paper, science

This took me FOREVER to read - but it isn't the book's fault. It was me just picking it up at odd moments & it giving me a lot to think about each time. I don't design every day things, so had absolutely no need to read this book, but found it extremely interesting. If you have any part in designing anything, you MUST read this book.

Norman points out the obvious - things I took for granted - & made me think about them in an entirely new light. He breaks down the simplest devices into t This took me FOREVER to read - but it isn't the book's fault. It was me just picking it up at odd moments & it giving me a lot to think about each time. I don't design every day things, so had absolutely no need to read this book, but found it extremely interesting. If you have any part in designing anything, you MUST read this book.

Norman points out the obvious - things I took for granted - & made me think about them in an entirely new light. He breaks down the simplest devices into their basic functions & features, then rebuilds them in a way that is both obvious & yet entirely new. He then points out places where the design elements are good & bad. He gets into the basic aspects of design that I never thought about such as aligning the number of controls with the number of functions. Best of all, he lays all of this out in an interesting manner with common examples as he delves deeper into the problems & solutions.

When you walk up to a door, how do you know how to deal with it? I never thought about it, just used it. Norman points out the clues I use, such as where the handles & hinges are located, as well as the conventions, such as pushing to go out of a commercial door, that I just KNOW & intuitively use. But what happens when designers fiddle around to make look pretty? Can anyone screw up something as mundane & venerable as a door? Unfortunately, yes indeedy!

He relates a funny story about getting stuck briefly in the foyer of a commercial building because of the 'modern' design of the doors. Hidden hinges, lots of glass, & handles that stretched across the entire center of the door gave no clue as to which way they opened. Couple that with one set of doors opening in the opposite direction from the others & a simple task - walking into a building without much thought (actually while thinking of other things, like the upcoming meeting) - became an irritating puzzle. Not a big deal? Actually, it is.

Norman pulls out some truly horrific numbers to make a great point on how important intuitive design is. The average person has something like 30,000 different instruction sets to remember on a regular basis. If each one of these took just a minute to remember, you'd spend several months learning them, assuming a 40 hour week devoted to the task! That we've absorbed these instructions & conventions over decades & are facing an increasing number of them on a daily basis makes it particularly irritating when they get redesigned into a problem.

Note: This book was published in the late 80's. While there are some desktop computing examples given, this book is pre-Internet. Think of how much additional information is required in the wake of that. (Think browsers, email, scams, viruses, ....)

While some of the examples are a bit dated, such as VCR's, they're not terrible. The multifunctional switches, confusing menus, & seemingly random options packed into those machines have carried over into their descendents in spades. Other examples, such as phone systems & stoves, are still so on target that it's absolutely infuriating. OK, phone systems are complicated, extremely proprietary & full of more options than ever, but do they HAVE to be so hard to use? I don't think so.

I know damn well that designers could do a much better job of laying out the controls for something as simple as a stove. They've had over a century & it's still a complete PITA to figure out which knob operates which burner. I can't walk up to any stove & put my hand on the correct knob. I have to read, sometimes even puzzle out symbols to figure out which is which. Even on my own simple stove, which we've had 5 years, I wind up reading to figure out the controls. OK, Marg usually cooks, but that's just STUPID design - one more minor irritation in a world filled with them, but one that could so easily be rectified with just a bit of thought!!! It's just infuriating.

While I was reading this book, a couple of examples of its relevance slapped me in the face.
- Steve Jobs died. Why was he so successful? Many people say that he was an inventor. WRONG. He rarely came up with anything truly new. His forte was in timing & design. Microsoft had a tablet for years before the iPad but their offering never made it. Why? Because the hardware couldn't support the overall expected functionality properly AND the user interface wasn't nearly as well designed as the iPad. Microsoft tried too early, designed it poorly, & FAILED themselves right out of the market.
- Amazon took the ebook market by storm. The Kindle wasn't the first ereader & it isn't really all that great hardware-wise, but it has a great interface that leverages a wonderful support system - all good design. It does one thing & does it really well.

Long review, but design is one of the most misunderstood & important concepts of our lives. I was completely shocked by my own ignorance about it. I still don't claim to be any expert, but it sure made me see the world in a different way. ...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Nick Black rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommended to Nick by: Jeff Garzik

Shelves: read-multiple-times

Jeff Garzik gave me a copy of this back when he was building the Linux network stack in Home Park; I'd seen it praised by a few other people by that time as well (via the GT newsgroups, most likely). I was underwhelmed -- there were a few good case analyses (the oven UI I recall being particularly effective), but very little usable, general principles came out of the read. I went back in 2006, thinking I'd perhaps missed something, but didn't find much more. then again, i'm probably not the targ ...more

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Apr 15, 2008 Jessica added it

Shelves: partly-read

Couldn't get in to it. Maybe I'll try again at a different time. On a side note, I found it odd that a book about user-centered design had line-broken right-justified headings and baffling use of italics.

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Jul 05, 2007 David rated it it was amazing

Have you ever stood in front of a door, or a microwave, absolutely flummoxed, because the damned thing gave you no clue whatsoever how to open it. If so (even, I venture to think, if not), you will enjoy this book. In clear, coruscating prose he exposes the miserable flaws in the design of everyday objects which conspire to make our lives less convenient, more miserable, and sometimes more dangerous.

The book is not just an exposé of the appalling laziness and hostility to consumers that is commo ...more

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Jan 02, 2017 linhtalinhtinh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fic

This book is more for knowledge than for enjoyment. The writing is rather dry and textbook-like with many abstract/theoretical concepts and ideas. I feel like taking a short course in design, which is still quite helpful. Nevertheless, I was expecting more of "smart" designs, more fun and strange and inspiring stories, but Norman isn't there to entertain but to educate and so there are examples mostly to illustrate concepts and processes. Naturally I was a bit disappointed, but still in general ...more

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Jul 10, 2010 Traveller rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, books-by-men

Excellent piece of non-fiction. This book is a prescribed textbook for a course on computer interface design that I'm doing.

Once I really started reading it, I almost couldn't put it down - it was so interesting that it almost read like fiction - none of the dry dust usually found in conventional textbooks.

Very well and humorously presented, and a must for engineers, designers, manufacturers and inventors everywhere!

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Feb 13, 2016 Katie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

I think there is really only one gif to sum this book up properly:

This book, although the examples are dated (as listed in nearly every review), is quite fabulous. The original title was actually "The Psychology of Everyday Things" which was less friendly to the average person, but quite accurate.

Like I said in a previous update, I feel like this book should be required reading for any type of designer, but somehow I had missed it until now. Great detail about design methodologies, constraints, and psychology - but not too much to be overwhelming (in my opinion). The examples, while dated, were still quite excellent (assuming you were born pre-2000s but hey you can google things). Since I listened to the audiobook (on Hoopla) I missed out on the diagrams which is disappointing, so I think I recommend reading the actual book. (However, I quite enjoyed the narrator, Peter Berkrot.)

I think that the younger generations (like myself or maybe this is just applicable no matter the period in history) assume that older people or even people their own age who don't understand technology are dumb. I know I've felt that. While working in a game dev company, we often expressed how stupid our users were, because things seemed obvious to us. It was great to hear his thoughts on how it's not your fault you can't figure something out, it's the designer's. I think anyone who has ever made something needs to hear that. You made it, you have a mental model of how it works, of course it seems intuitive to you. He also goes into the difficulties designers face in getting to a good design and the struggle to keep a good design from being changed along the way.

I do think there were a few times he oversimplified things as far as challenges designers face, but overall he seemed to take a fair stance. It was especially fascinating to hear his "theories" on what computers would become (this was written in '88) and compare them to what HAS happened so far. He's often quite spot on, though I'm not sure how many of those things he helped MAKE happen. ;)

BLAH BLAH BLAH, IT'S GOOD. If you're a designer, a must read. If you aren't, it may be a little dense but still worth it if you're interested. Definitely will at least help you figure out how to look out for good design in the products you buy. ...more

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Aug 10, 2017 Brian Rosenblat rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: product-management

(5.0)

Can't believe I hadn't read this before.

There's a lot of wisdom in this book. I'd highly recommend for anyone pursuing a career in design, product, marketing, or tech, or anyone who just wants to build great products.

Internalize these ideas and put them into practice and you will create better products that will impact people's lives.

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Jan 22, 2015 Jessica E rated it did not like it

Too general to be valuable. Too many sentences like this: "Each discipline has a different perspective of the relative importance of the many factors that make up a product."

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Apr 11, 2013 Rob Adey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Sensible thinking, but does come across at times like an 80s observational comedy routine about motion sensitive taps.

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Dec 22, 2017 Joe rated it liked it

Shelves: book-club

The Design of Everyday Things (DOET) is the story of doors, faucets and keyboards. It's the tale of rangetops and refrigerators. Donald Norman beckons the reader to look at the common objects they deal with every day in new and methodical ways. And he offers up this central question; what makes an object well-designed as opposed to poorly-designed?

And on the question of design DOET, itself an everyday object, rates poorly. Norman's discussion of individual items proves inconsistent and rarely sy The Design of Everyday Things (DOET) is the story of doors, faucets and keyboards. It's the tale of rangetops and refrigerators. Donald Norman beckons the reader to look at the common objects they deal with every day in new and methodical ways. And he offers up this central question; what makes an object well-designed as opposed to poorly-designed?

And on the question of design DOET, itself an everyday object, rates poorly. Norman's discussion of individual items proves inconsistent and rarely systematic; sometimes he includes examples of both good and bad design (such as when he analyzes doors), but oftentimes he only mentions the bad (such as when he talks about office phone systems.) He rarely offers design suggestions of his own and organizes everything by psychological concepts that often prove vague or arcane; section headings include 'Memory is Knowledge in the Head' and 'Using Sound for Visibility.'

Even more basically, explanatory pictures are almost never on the same page as the text referencing them, forcing the reader to page back and forth. It's the sort of design flaw Norman attacks consistently so it feels odd that the typesetting for his book is so consistently awkward.

To Norman's credit, he shows passion for this subject and he writes engagingly when he isn't listing psychological vocabulary words. And the subject itself is fascinating; relevant to everyone and endlessly detailed. And Norman always seems to find interesting digressions; applying design principles to Legos or efficiently charting every plausible game of Tic-Tac-Toe.

And I found myself agreeing with Norman's core philosophy. He argues that function should supersede features and usability is more important than aesthetics. He also takes the stance that if you can't figure out a gadget, it probably isn't your fault and he goes into detail about how common this sort of confusion is.

Norman takes a decidedly pro-humanity outlook in a book all about objects; just one more irony I suppose. After all, DOET is a poorly-designed study of design regarding a mundane subject that fascinates. ...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Kater Cheek rated it it was ok

I got this as an audiobook, based on the fact that it falls within my usual taste for non fiction and because it's been referred to by many other books. In many ways, this is a classic book that inspired many people to think more seriously about design. At least, that's my impression, garnered from the unreasonably long introduction in which the author talks about how great and important his book is.

Confession time: I didn't finish the book. I got down to about the last hour and ten minutes and I got this as an audiobook, based on the fact that it falls within my usual taste for non fiction and because it's been referred to by many other books. In many ways, this is a classic book that inspired many people to think more seriously about design. At least, that's my impression, garnered from the unreasonably long introduction in which the author talks about how great and important his book is.

Confession time: I didn't finish the book. I got down to about the last hour and ten minutes and finally had enough. This book is boring. I spent most of my time listening to it trying to figure out why it was so boring. I like design. I like sociology. I like pop science. I like non-fiction. Why did this book make me drift off and not know what he'd said for ten to twenty minute chunks? I'm not exactly sure, but I've got some ideas.

First of all, the book references illustrations. Yes. In an audiobook. I went to my audible account to delete it, and saw that the pdf of the illustrations had thoughtfully been included in the download. So I looked at the illustrations, but they still weren't that great. They clarified some things that I didn't understand, but they didn't add a tremendous amount to the understanding of the text. If the book had been littered with illustrations, with "here's good" next to "here's bad", it might have helped, but then it wouldn't have been a good audiobook.

Secondly, the book had too much abstract descriptions and made-up words.Remember when you were in elementary school and they'd have a textbook that talked about, say, the natural resources of a country, and they'd have vocabulary words in bold that you had to remember for the test? But they were artificial, like "grasslands" meant something different from "savanna" which was different from "prairie" This book kinda did that, at least in the first chapters, like he was structuring this as a textbook to teach you principles of good design. His principles sort of made sense, but they had too few examples to elucidate them, and what anecdotes and examples he included often were completely off-topic.

The middle to second half of the book got especially off-topic, degenerating at times into a rant about how hard VCRs are to program and DOS computers are to use. Which brings me to my third point: this book is really dated. In some ways it's cool; he describes a smart phone decades before one existed. In other ways, it's not really relevant. He talks about frustrating faucets, for example, he derides motion-detecting faucets as difficult to use because they aren't obvious. Most people these days use motion-detecting faucets just fine. He talks about how awful computers are, but he's talking about a computer that anyone under the age of 25 has never seen. Even if it weren't for the overly-abstract, poorly described principles he wants people to learn from, the age of his observations makes this book not relevant.

I don't recommend this book. It's an interesting topic, but this book is poorly written and too dated to be useful. ...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Stringy rated it really liked it

Shelves: design-and-development

A classic for a reason. The examples are dated, but if you still remember rotary dial telephones (maybe over 30 years of age?) you'll be fine with them. Since Norman more or less predicts iPhones and iPads in this book, I'd love to read an update chapter from him in the next edition.

The principles are still accurate and useful, and Norman makes a solid case for why my inability to get through doorways safely is actually the fault of the manufacturers. People using products are busy, they have t ...more

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Apr 29, 2014 Neven rated it really liked it

DoeT isn't the world's best written book—Norman's style is too often kvetchy-casual, sounding more like a modern-day ranty blog post than a classic of academic design writing.

But that is only one way in which this book is ahead of its time. The observations and recommendations regarding usable design here hold to extremely well 25 years later; even though Norman's examples concern ancient phone systems and slide projectors, it all translates perfectly well to virtual touchscreen UIs of today. A ...more

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Jan 26, 2014 Bryan Alexander rated it it was amazing

Shelves: technology, design

A splendid book that I finally got around to reading, The Design of Everyday Things walks us through exactly what the title promises. Norman explores phones, doors, car keys, VCRs, water faucets, and signage, looking for principles that show how these work well or poorly.

Despite the author being a psychologist, the books is beautifully bereft of jargon. It reads like Asimov's nonfiction: accessible, brisk, pedagogically attuned, and often witty.

One nice assumption: that the user (you) is usually ...more

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May 16, 2013 Noce rated it liked it · review of another edition

Orsù, imbranati di tutto il mondo rianimatevi

Una volta sfrondato dalla reiterazione sfiancante alla È facile smettere di fumare se sai come farlo il messaggio profetico emerge in tutta la sua evidenza.

Non siamo noi ad essere cerebrolesi, ma è il progettista ad essere diversamente scadente.

Detto questo, mi accingo a progettare una ciotola a sezioni basculanti con timer incorporato e pulsanti a idrogetto per il mio cane, in modo che anch’esso (si noti il lieve sadismo in crescendo che culmina in ...more

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Jun 06, 2010 Laura rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, abandoned

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

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Aug 09, 2012 Tracey rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, craft

The main question in my mind after listening to this audiobook is easily enough answered: How old IS this book, anyhow? In the introduction the author talks about how the book isn't dated. Well, it was originally published in 1988. One of the pieces of technology most discussed is the videocassette recorder. The VCR. The computers being discussed are about a step beyond the ones that were capable of adding three numbers together using a bank of systems that would fill a room.

Some of the book is ...more

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Nov 11, 2013 Jacob Mclaws rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: design

This a required read for anyone who wants to design things for humans to use, but it was more like a textbook than I hoped when I picked it up. Lots of design vocabulary and lots of fairly common-sense principles. Don Norman is definitely one of the early design thinkers and this is where he talks about it all.

Big takeaways:
Signifiers and feedback are key in designing something. The user needs to be able to quickly understand what it can do (affordances) and get immediate and appropriate feedb ...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Eduardo Rocha rated it really liked it

This book is amazing. You'll never look at another door or faucet in the sameway.
If you take anything from this book, it is these 7 principles of making a difficult design task an easy one.

1. Use both knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head.
2. Simplify the structure of tasks.
3. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of Execution and Evaluation.
4. Get the mappings right.
5. Exploit the power of constraints, both natural and artificial.
6. Design for error.
7. When all else fails, standardize ...more

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Mar 31, 2008 Jon rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: designers, computer scientists, engineers

The book introduces basic psychological concepts from areas such as cognitive psychology and ties them into usability and design.

Even though the book feels a bit outdated (they talk about rotary phones and old sewing machines), all the principles covered in the book still apply today.

Even though the book was written with things in mind that most of us won't necessarily use anymore (such as the problem of threading a projector), the principles are still useful to know when designing modern-day th ...more

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Jul 11, 2012 Andreea rated it did not like it

I usually do not let books un-finished, but this one is mediocre, especially if you have some basic psychology concepts

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Jul 02, 2018 Utsav rated it liked it · review of another edition

A couple of weeks ago a colleague brought some tarts to the office from Art Café. The lemon tarts were white and the coconut ones were yellow. You could see the grimaces on everybody's faces as they bit into what they thought was lemon pie and got a mouthful of coconut instead.

Small details matter.

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Feb 06, 2012 Brian rated it really liked it

Recommended to Brian by: Michael Economy

(4.0) Some good stuff in here, though it's certainly dated

I'll be looking up some of his other books to see if he's as good at predicting and suggesting product improvements as he was back then.

I think he makes concrete some really common sense ways to approach and analyze designs of products that humans use. It's certainly entertaining to point out ridiculous products, interfaces etc., but that's kind of 'negative design': what not to do. That doesn't actually help you do it right. Fortunately, ...more

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Jun 03, 2016 Maria rated it it was ok · review of another edition

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 лог 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. ...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Kipriadi prawira added it

A big part of what makes The Design of Everyday Things so enjoyable are the descriptions of flawed designs that Norman peppers throughout the book. These case studies serve to illustrate both how difficult it is to design something well, n how essential good design is to our lives. Norman draws on his own (often humorous) experiences with poorly designed objects, as well as anecdotes from colleagues n friends, n paints an all-too-familiar picture of design gone awry. If you’ve ever struggled to ...more

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May 21, 2014 Lacey rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, design

I'm just going to be real. This book was incredibly boring. I picked it up because I was told it was a classic of the field and would be useful to have in my reading repertoire. And truthfully, the only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because of the impact this book has clearly had on the design field. I'm sure at the time of its original release, this book was light years ahead of others in the way that it thought about design. I can definitely see how its concepts have become a ma ...more

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Feb 27, 2017 Don Sevcik rated it liked it

Good principles, I just wish it was less wordy. I wanted to see more examples.

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About Donald A. Norman

Donald A. Norman

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Donald Arthur Norman is a professor emeritus of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego and a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University, where he also co-directs the dual degree MBA + Engineering degree program between the Kellogg school and Northwestern Engineering. Norman is on numerous company advisory boards, including the editorial board of Encyclopædia Bri ...more