The Design of Everyday Things (1988)

When you have trouble operating an ordinary household item, the problem may not be you; it may be that the item is badly designed. An interesting and logical look at how poor design complicates everything from doors to audiovisual equipment. While the examples are a little dated (most of us aren't concerned about how to program a VCR anymore, and the pocket computer that can remind you of events is now a reality), it's still very much a timely topic.

My one quibble: The author gives a lot of emphasis to the visual and barely notes in an aside that designing something to work for blind as well as sighted people takes some extra thought, though he does often mention that certain items should be designed so they can be operated in the dark. Having seen a neighbor attempt to enter the code on his home alarm by touch, when there was nothing on the flat keypad to indicate where his fingers should go, I'd say that aspect of design is even more neglected than designing something to make sense when you look at it.

Still, overall a thought-provoking book. ( )

Finally read the usability classic! I didn't take a lot of concrete lessons from this, but I've been up to my ears in usability texts for a while now, and some of this doesn't translate well to web design. Still, a great read and lives up to the hype. ( )

Loved the premise, the execution left me a little cold. There was much here that was interesting but then it would start turning into a text book. I'm sure that for an engineering student or a doorknob designer an analysis of the eight or nine distinct actions and decisions involved in opening a door are probably of use. For me, less so.

I still think its worth a read. I liked the really excellent argument that much of what is termed human error is in fact poor design. And that one sign of a well designed product is that you don't need a multi page instructional manual to figure out how to use it. There were lots of interesting things like those in here, I liked the idea that designers should plan for operator mistakes and wherever possible make them easily reversible. I liked the point that almost no truly new product or idea really works all that well on the first try because hey, its new nobody knows how yet! So if we want innovation, we have to give new ideas some room to fail a time or two.

There is a whole lot in this book that is really interesting, but it does suffer from a confusion of tone. Is it a textbook for engineers and designers or is it for a general audience? It teeters back and forth and never does really decide. But I guess if I want innovation, I have to give this book some room to be dull in spots. ( )

인간중심의 디자인에 대한 돈 노만의 견해와 다양한 실제사례를 담고 있는 재미난 책하나 소개​

Everyone who works in book publishing should have this book (or ebook if it is available!) as a reference point. ( )