The Design of Everyday Things
Paperback – Illustrated, November 5, 2013
Basic Books · Paperback · November 5, 2013
The essential guide to human-centered design “Even more relevant today than it was when first published.”—Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door.
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- Who it’s for
- Readers interested in product design and usability
- Themes
- design principles, usability, cognitive psychology
- Pacing
- Reflective
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The essential guide to human-centered design “Even more relevant today than it was when first published.”—Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious—even liberating—book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology.
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The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints. The goal: guide the user effortlessly to the right action on the right control at the right time. The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how—and why—some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.
Who it’s for
- Readers interested in product design and usability
- Those curious about cognitive psychology's role in design
Where it sits
| Applied Psychology | 47% |
|---|---|
| Product Design | 45% |
| Human-Computer Interaction | 30% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Retailing
- Design History
- Product Design
- Applied Psychology
- Authors
- Don Norman
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- Published
- November 5, 2013
- Format
- Paperback
- Theme
- design principles · usability · cognitive psychology
- Reading lane
- Retailing