Psychology of Everyday Things
1988 • 257 pages
Ratings50
Average rating4
15
Ratings50
Average rating4
The Design of Everyday Things is a best-selling book by cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman about how design serves as the communication between object and user, and how to optimize that conduit of communication in order to make the experience of using the object pleasurable. One of the main premises of the book is that although people are often keen to blame themselves when objects appear to malfunction, it is not the fault of the user but rather the lack of intuitive guidance that should be present in the design.
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There is a reason this is the bible of design. It should be read and re-read forever because of the common sense that is blatant on the pages, yet is still defied today in the design world.
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.
This was written in a decade before authors learned how to write stimulating non-fiction.
There's some good stuff in there but overall it's much drier than I expected. I reads quite like a textbook in many sections.
