Decoding Design

I think this quote from early on in the book explains it well,
“In the same way breathing is an unconscious action, patterns are so pervasive we don't notice most of them. Likewise we cannot exist without them and we use them subliminally and constantly.”

Symbology and semiotics are crucial in design - more importantly the ability to understand what we are trying to communicate and then clearly encode within the design - so that the users, customers and audience can easily understand and make the most of them.

I feel that a lot of ‘failed' design, is simply the designer's inability to perform this encoding properly.

I heard Maggie talking on DesignMatters and then set about tracking the book down (at a reasonable price - it's out of print).

After reading the book , I immediately thought, damn - I wish I had had this book 25 years ago. I then thought; this topic and this knowledge is obviously needed, why is Maggie the only one to have written about it.

Personally, I think this book should be required reading on EVERY design course - so, it's tragic that it's “out of print”. There is an eBook, but then you miss the great interactive cover.