Written by a Usability Guru, some of the examples are a little dated, but still valuable for today's usability issues. A good read and well written.

Norman has created an entertaining and enlightening treatise on the psychology of everyday objects. Why do some things work so well while others completely baffle? What distinguishes successful utility from frustration? How does one research and develop successful products? Most importantly, how does one avoid wasting time developing products that are doomed to fail? Many everyday objects are examined for their utility and user-friendliness. Norman uses three basic concepts, Affordances, Constraints, and Mappings to deconstruct everyday objects.
If you are designing Web sites, user interfaces for computer applications, writing manuals, or creating anything that will be used by a human being, this book will help you succeed. Norman encourages you to remove your creativity and ego from the process by affording you the objectivity to examine the goal from the point of view of the user. He shows you how social and cultural constraints can be used to enhance products.
An excellent book but you must understand that using Norman's advice requires no small amount of humility which makes it difficult to sell to established shops. For instance, I know a Web design team that uses the "don't make them think" mantra for many decisions. But they've been using it so long they think they know everything about the best Web interface design. Their prejudices get in the way of successfully developing half of their projects because they can no longer think like users and visitors. They might never be able to use Norman's advice because they'd see it as obvious and pedestrian.

Even though some people think this is not useful in practice, I strongly believe this is a must read for anyone who designs an artifact for users. A very amusing and thoughtful book. Can even be used as a required reading in many courses such as UI design.

Without question, a wonderful piece of work!
(I've given a dozen copies to students as inspiration.)
However, the publisher's stinginess in neither providing adequate interior margins (between pages) nor adequately accommodating for the thickness of the book by type placement on the page is a perfect illustration of the design failures under discussion.
The type has to be read curved & distorted over the waves of too thick pages rushing toward the spine. Oddly, more than adequate margins have been provided on the outer edges of each page - presumably for annotation. As such, the publisher might include a note in each succeeding edition suggesting how well this exemplifies the issue. That way there would be no need to fix the problem. I might even suggest the coinage of an near-eponymous term for this: "Normandizing".

I recommend this book to anyone, but particularly to those who are in the business of building or design.

Dome-headed engineering professors call it "human factors engineering," "interaction design" or "usability engineering," but the purpose of this strangely-named discipline is far simpler than these appellations suggest: to make everyday items do what users expect them to do. Donald Norman has been thinking about usability issues longer than almost anyone and has insights commensurate with his experience. Norman knows how both people and machines work (he has degrees in psychology and engineering). More importantly, he knows how to bridge the gulf between the human mind and the devices the mind wants to use, from toasters to telephones to teapots. In this classic, he provides a few simple precepts and many wonderful examples showing how to design the most important component of any technology - the user's experience. While some of Norman's examples are a little long in the tooth (he discusses VCRs, not DVDs), we find that the principles he describes in this friendly book are still sprightly almost 20 years after their initial publication.

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 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 commonplace among designers( e.g. in the software industry, which is a story unto itself - see "The Lunatics are Running the Asylum") - it is also a clarion call to action. We need not live in a world where it appears that appliances conspire to make us feel like idiots. And when they do - when you can't figure out which button to push, or whether a door opens inward or outward - remember that you are not the one at fault. It is the lazy incompetent designer of the thing which is making you miserable who is deserving of scorn and ridicule.

Far too often, in a design world which favors form over function and usability, crimes against the user get rewarded with prizes and the acclaim of the design cognoscenti. People who presumably never have to struggle with the consequences of their own reckless disregard for the usability of the objects they design.

This book is an outraged and eloquent call for change. Though it was written several years ago, the central arguments hold up well, and the style is humorous and engaging.

If every manufacturer followed his rules we would all be happier and in some instances safer. Interesting read

My former employer had a copy of this book which I read years ago and I've wanted my own copy for some time. I recently got it as a gift and re-reading it now, I'm reminded what a classic, insightful book this is. It belongs in every designer's library.

I sympathize with the reviewer who didn't like the design of the book. The current, paperback edition is definitely disappointing and if it was the first edition I encountered, I might be put off, too. But don't let the weaker presentation keep you from diving in and absorbing the essence of Norman's message: ATMs and light switches and computer programs should work the way the user expects!

This is a common sense book that illustrates how many problems aren't due to it user errors - but to the designer's error. For example, how often have you guessed (incorrectly) when walking up to a new building, what door is the main entrance "in" door, and puzzled over whether that door opens in or out? The problem is not due to your lack of intellect - the problem was caused because the entryway's usability was not tested in the building's entryway door design, and therefore everyday users can not use them easily. If usabilty and good design were taught at the secondary school level, maybe we would all benefit from better designed homes, cars, highways, electronics, and web pages. Highly recommended.

Donald Norman, a very established expert on usability, interaction design and cognitive psychology, wrote this book back in the 80s. Although this is quite some time ago (for a book on design, at least), it still contains a lot of true things. The authors tackles a large amount of absurd mistakes in the design of every day items and explains where, why and how the design has failed. The book is written in an almost informal, novel-like way and therefore is an easy read. The author put a high information density into his text, which allows the reader to quickly advance from one idea to the next, without having the impression that the material repeats itself. A large amount of examples and stories help to convey the relatively abstract material in a way that it is fun to read. The mostly funny aspects of the examples help to connect the abstract information with real incidents. Although the author points out many design flaws, he never speaks negatively and always explains why design mistakes (or even user errors) occur and how they can be avoided.

If you like a book that explains common design errors and how to avoid them, this book is for you. If you want a tutorial in how to design an interaction, I would like to suggest Sharp, Rogers, Preece, 2007, instead.

The Design of Everyday Things is not a common book. It is a book about thinking how things are made, and more important, why they are made that way. It's a fantastic way of speaking about usability, about utility, and about design.

After you read it, you'll start to look all around you. You can apply it to software design: Remember those hellish tools nobody could master even reading once and again the help? Or remember that tool that was so easy to use you didn't even opened the help... And analyse them, extract that factors make it good (or bad).
But you can apply it to your life. Are you dumb because you can't program your dishwasher, or maybe is that having 10 buttons is a mess?
I am left-handed and a lot of times I've thought "I can't do this well because it's designed for right handed". Now, sometimes I look more closely and see that even for them it's hard to use.

Something not common to read to learn something about usability and design, but a good source to learn them.

Dr. Norman discusses many important aspects of cognitive engineering in this classic title, including human memory, errors, stages of action, constraints, knowledge in our heads vs. knowledge in the environment, feedback, mappings, to name just a few. He covers these topics fairly deeply, yet keeps them all quite interesting with his clear writing & excellent illustrations. A must read for industrial designers & usability engineers.

Originally published as "The Psychology of Everyday Things' in 1988, this book looks at the nexus of function and form from theoretical and practical points of view. While there is much to recommended it, and the principle are solid,the book is hopelessly out-of-date in its examples of everyday design, particularly computers and telephones. While Norman writes in a folksy, sometimes humorous style, DOET still reads like an undergraduate text book, and is highly repetitive. I'd look for something more contemporary.

Its hard for me to imagine someone who _would not_ benefit from this book. This book is definitely meant to be studied, not simply read, although if you are just looking for some light reading, its nicely written for that too.

I am going to recommend this book to everyone I know.

The book is about proper design of door handles and appliance switches. Door handles should suggest by their size, shape and position if the door should be pushed, pulled or slided. The arrangement of switches should resemble the arrangement of the device, so that the right switch can be found easily. These would be two great introductory examples into the subject of easy-to-use design. But the book stays there and does not go anywhere further. This message could be conveyed in two pages instead of 257. I would expect suggestions about gathering user requirements and turning them into good design or applying intuitive design techniques to user interfaces of computer programs. Also, I think that most inconvenient designs that we encounter in everyday life that cost us a lot of time are poorly designed procedures rather than things themselves. Even though the title of the book includes "things", it could go into applying easy-to-use design principles into procedures.

If you are or will be involved in understanding usability and interfaces or being more general "HCI" then this book is a must have for you. Great and will change your way of thinking and looking at objects all around you for the rest of your life.

"The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman is said to be one of those great usability books. I bought mine at a major usability conference, believing the hype. My conclusion: Useful, but overhyped.

Norman takes a theme that says, "Look at history and you will see how the objects we use daily are sensible and functional. Now, design websites and software likewise," and develops a complete book.

Rats. I gave it all away. Now you do not need to buy the book, nor read any its 257 pages.

Really, that's more or less all there is to the book.

It is easy to read, but, in the end, becomes repetitive and is deficient in assisting the reader with application. It points out a problem we need to understand, but offers no solution. It is worth reading, but lacks as an instructional tool.

For the dense-headed, or for someone who has never considered the arguments for thinking about function before form, the book is tremendously useful. Example after example is presented is simple terms so that readers will see that merely having a cool website is not enough.

Where the book does not meet the mark is in the transferring the ideas into something modern, practical, and, in the case of we communications people, websites. What starts with a brilliant exposition about devices being useful ends where it started.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

The book is for those without engineering background to understand what constitutes sound product designs(esp. interface design). It is also good teaching material for undergraduate level "product design."

This book is fantastic!!! It explains how the most basic things in the world work, and as a result is one of the fundamental building blocks to gaining a curiosity of everything else. Tremendous accomplishment! I, and everyone else I know who has read it, LOVED this book and the interesting elements it delivered.

This book is fantastic!!! It explains how the most basic things in the world work, and as a result is one of the fundamental building blocks to gaining a curiosity of everything else. Tremendous accomplishment! I, and everyone else I know who has read it, LOVED this book and the interesting elements it delivered.

This is one of the classics. Many Human Computer Interaction (HCI) courses use this book as a reference. It is a good book it starts off well and gives excellent insights. But after a while it is the same stories over and over again - to a point that it gets quiet monotonous. Nevertheless if you choose to read only one book on HCI then this should be the one.

Whether you design software, hardware, gadgets or just 'processes' you will learn something from this book. Provides excellent insight into usability and how humans interact with technology. With computer systems overwhelming users with features but caring less about real productivity, this book is very relevant today and must be read by all product engineers.

Whether you design software, hardware, gadgets or just 'processes' you will learn something from this book. Provides excellent insight into usability and how humans interact with technology. With computer systems overwhelming users with features but caring less about real productivity, this book is very relevant today and must be read by all product engineers.

This is the book my boss (a Customer Experience/Usability expert) gives to all new employees on his team. It does a great job of showing the values and principles of making truly useful items and systems.

This is the book my boss (a Customer Experience/Usability expert) gives to all new employees on his team. It does a great job of showing the values and principles of making truly useful items and systems.

I really enjoyed The Design of Everyday Things. I'm a communications manager and web designer, and this was incredibly helpful in the way I think about everything from web site navigation to how someone interacts with a brochure. Donald Norman is an excellent author and provides a detailed, but light-hearted approach to the topic. Don't expect to find specific modern media examples, but instead, you'll find principles to guide designing everything from web sites to nuclear power plants.

For software developers...a good change from the norm

After reading many technical books and development theory books, this is a good break from the normal routine. This can help a developer step outside the box and look at development like the engineering of any thing that is used by people. Most of what is said applies to the developer whether designing user interfaces or object interfaces. Definitely worth a read.

Norman's book is a must-read in the field of product design, as you'll see it cited in just about every other work on the subject. Its status is well-deserved. He lays fundamental groundwork that informs good design no matter what your field of study. But he just beats things to death. I got a little weary of his going on and on about little things. The book could be half its length and still make all his points and not end up boring the reader to death... Nonetheless, I still think it's important information. I recommend it. You just have to skim it when he's saying the same thing again, and again.

This update to "The Psychology of everyday things" is quite possibly my favorite book. Let me start with the negatives, as I can think of so few: I will admit that at times Donald Norman draws out his points to the extent that one wonders if he needed to meet a word count for a particular section. And some of the concepts are outdated (notably the magical 5-7 range; psychologists have put that one out to pasture).

The positives: The book is light, funny, and easy to read despite the college-student-deterring length. Norman presents all of his points with anecdotes; he relies on both real stories (personal and recounted) and hypothetical situations to lead the reader into a think-tank state of mind about how we use and are used by the designs all around us. I really liked how no subject is too trivial to be overlooked for its design lessons--examples range from shower tap handles to keyboard layouts to fire safety mechanisms to automobile dashboards...The list is stunningly long.

I think the most pleasant aspect of this book is that it is so very usable. Sure, the examples vary enough to resemble a near stream of consciousness, but it's that very diversity that causes the reader to walk away more observant of the world around him or herself. After reading this book, I am convinced that you will have a significantly altered perspective on the cognitively constructed nature of the world around you. And while some examples and concepts might show their age, the points Norman makes are simply too valuable to ignore. As a minimum, all Microsoft Windows developers should be locked in a room with this one until they finish ;)

I highly recommend it, and no, you may not buy my copy used!

If you've ever wondered how things come into being and concepts behind them? Then this book is for you. For me, it aided me by gaining a better understanding into what sort of concepts I should be working through in forming my presentations for work.

Everyone's got one's share of distressing moments, failing to use some variations of widely utilized hardware like doors, windows, entertainment systems, faucets etc. I know I've got quite a lot of them. I used to think it was because I am slightly dyslexic.

Thanks to Mr.Norman's well articulated insight into knowledge in the head, knowledge in the world, affordances etc., reviewing those moments --not a difficult job, by the way, as mr. brain has a funny way with embarrassing moments: it may store your PIN to your cash card so deep, that it takes a minute to dig it up, but it keeps the memories of those embarrasing moments virtually on the surface so when you wake up in the middle of the night mr. brain can immediately fish out one of them; Dave Barry is quite right with his theory that this could account for a large percentage of inexplicable midnight suicides-- I now know I was buffled because the design was misleading or plain bad.

The infrequent hitches with the book are a small number of sections where Mr.Norman over-articulates. He certainly does not bore: the content is quite stimulating throughout the book. It's just that some of his ideas could be expressed with less words and/or less repetitions than they are.

His most striking ideas are expressed simply (one could argue that they are striking *because* they are expressed simply). I personally love his observation on users' manuals for doors: even a single word (PUSH or PULL) users' manual is a sign that the door was badly designed.

Classic book on perceiving the psychological and human aspects of design. Brings awareness to why designs are good or bad from the fundamentals of human interaction. Goes beyond saying that design is some magical innate ability but a scientifically explanable event.

does not live up to the hype, no wonder he works with Jakob Nielsen, same thinking "structures" erm. nice idea seeds, would fit into a four pager, even with examples.

don't buy this book, the seven bullet items summarize all included. much awrite about nothing.

The functionality of everyday things
Fantastic book. The book describes how to design functional products, by showing some good and bad examples of good design. The book does give a couple of tips to every designer

- Make everything visible, or at least try to. This is the part of the book that was somewhat vague, because although it might work on simple products it would fail on the more complex ones. It is considered a bad idea, from a design and usability perspective, to put every option of complex software in front of the user. Thankfully the author does describe two solutions; hiding and grouping. Hiding, while still making every option readily accessible.

- Use natural mapping. We naturally map certain actions; push means forward, while pull means backwards. The author urges designers to use natural mapping whenever possible, and avoid using some unnatural mappings.

- Accordance. The material of an object could convey the function of a product or how it should be used.

- Shape of objects. Shapes could convey the handling, purpose, or operation of a product.

- Constraints. Constraints could make users less likely to make errors

- Design for error and make everything reversible

- When all else fails try to adhere to a standard (or make your own)


The book also describes times where the designers purposely make the the product difficult to use; a nuclear power control for example. The book does caution, however, that such designs usually backfire in certain circumstances.

The book does not mention how to have a good design while still keeping the product aesthetically pleasing.

I studied mechanical engineering and one of the design courses was aimed to develop creativity through lateral thinking, hands on approach, etc.. yet we did not receive a formal design theory as to why form follows funtion.

I read this book some years ago and ever since I lost my original ignorance toward everything I must deal with in cotidianity (from doors, to faucet handles, procedures,etc).. it is a very disturbing state since one is compelled to criticize ( and be labelled a complainer) and to stoicaly suffer bad design (which includes complex= non undestandable design). It is lifechanging and required reading for all of those who can design anything.

Pure gold for designers in any field. As a videogame designer I found this increadibly insightful, more so than than the vast majority of books devoted to game design.

Full of memorable examples this is simply a great read for anyone who's suffed bad design and blamed themself.

I wrote this review as a partial reply to the reviewers slamming this book for being out-of-date, or not focused on computer software design for useability.

These criticisms are simply unfair. The book IS 15 years old, so one must expect that many the examples are old. And it never claimed to be solely about useability. I believe these criticisms are from people who somehow expected a cookbook of good design.

But saying that the ideas are out of date is ridiculous. What, exactly, has changed in the design of doors in the last 15 years? Stoves? Telephones?

The bottom line is that if you read this book you will gain the ability to analyze the design of anything, including software. It is still, outdated examples and all, the most readable text that discusses why people have problems operating things and how to go about systematically trying to fix those problems.

If you are unwilling to learn about simple concepts such as affordances, you are simply not serious about design, UI or otherwise.

It was a good and easy book to read, it helps you look at things in a different perspective.

This is not specifically a computer interface design book, but it is still invaluable for anyone who designs and develops computer software. This book looks at usability through the design of "everyday things" such as washing machines, telephones, doors, automobiles, calculators, light switches, and to some extent, computers. Rather than just dryly examining the operation of these devices and what is right and wrong with them, the author looks at the human brain and how it works to help get answers to why some devices fail to be usable by normal human beings. The author mentions that rote learning is the bane of modern living - take "ALT CTL DELETE" for example. This is why even learning your ABC's has turned into learning a tune, since people seek structure in learning. People who use computers or cook by rote could not be good at these tasks. When something goes wrong they have no frame of reference to judge their actions. Thus, designers should tap into the way that human memory works to come up with good designs. For example, the four controls on a stovetop are laid out in the same configuration as the burners they control, and people use them without thinking. If the configuration was laid out some other way, there would be 24 possible combinations of these four controls, and rote memory would come into play. This is an example of using natural mapping. Memory is also aided by understanding. It turns out that a particular auto allows the sunroof to be closed without the ignition through a strange sequencing of controls that make no sense and is thus hard to remember. Once you realize that this was not intended by the manufacturer but instead is an accident of design that engages the electrical system without the ignition and that all of the electric features work including the sunroof, you remember the sequence by understanding what is really being accomplished.
This book is full of observations and examples such as this, is fun to read, and most of all it gets you thinking about how you think. I highly recommend this book to anyone who must develop user interfaces so that they have more insight into what makes something easy and natural to use.

The purpose of this book is to draw attention to a growing problem in our increasingly high-tech society, which is the failure of designers and engineers to consider the usability/functionality of the products they create. After all, if the most brilliant device in the world is impossible to figure out, then it's also the most useless device in the world. The book was written with a clear, fundamental goal and Don Norman nailed it on the head. Excellent work.

In addition to writing a fascinating and educational book on a vital topic, Norman also managed to present his material in an extremely entertaining mode. His great writing style accompanies a wealth of real-world examples and detailed illustrations to present the reader with a great read. This book is a must for designers, manufacturers, sellers and consumers alike.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, having been told what it was about, the design of everyday things and how we all relate to it, but was let down when it arrived. The content is a fascinating one - the way the book is designed on the other hand leaves a whole lot to be desired! How could Donald Norman talk about design and not extend it to the design of his book? I am baffled! No attention was paid to the design of the book it seems. So much of the images/examples have gone past their sell by date. I think that it could use an update. Shouldn't judge a book by it's cover but when the content is about design, I'm only exhibiting consumer behavior relative to design as discussed in the book!

This is a difficult book to evaluate and recommend to others. It's full of incredibly useful design concepts. But the concepts are abstract and may be difficult for some to apply to software design (e.g., affordances, conceptual models, mapping). It's written by one of the world authorities in usable design, Donald Norman. However, Norman's writing style alternates between the dry description of the concepts and the more interesting real-word examples of those concepts. But, most of the the real-world concepts presented throughout the book are not software-based (e.g., telephones, doors, appliances). However, all of the concepts are incredibly important to the design of usable software. In the end, if you can make it through the book and can see the application of these proven design concepts to your software efforts, then it will have been worthwhile.

I am a software engineer. This book has very little to do with software specifically, but I learned so much from this book about general design that I reflect on its teachings alot. The idea from this book is that are not bad people, just bad designs and points to examples to show this. I absolutely love this book and have since recommended this book to many others. It is a quick read, yet long lasting in effect. I still think about how doors are designed when I walk through them as a result of reading this book. Enjoy.

If you have a creative side, and intend to design or invent new products and services, you will find this book provides a well-tempered analysis of technological devices and their impact on the people who will ultimately use them.

I've read three of Norman's books on the subject, and this was my favorite.

Many interesting anecdotes, but the book needs an editor, like how -as the author exhorts- a gadget needs user testing. Amusingly, the book violates many of its own principles.

The book is designed with unnecessary labels, so perhaps another design should be considered - as the author himself exhorts the reader (at some place in the book but I forget where -- see comment below). For example, a page with two illustrations has a caption that reads "A (above) shows an..." and "B (right) shows the..." However, neither illustration has an A or B on it, so a better design would have been to just say "The picture above shows an..." and skip the parenthetical, extra labels needed to overcome this design deficiency.

When is page one not page one? Here! The book (my copy, anyway) has 24 pages of stuff before the book "begins" on page one. There is an introduction and a preface, an introduction to the introduction, I suppose, that fall outside the numbered pages. The text of these two (?) sections set the stage but if it's not worthy of being, say, Chapter 1, then perhaps it should be left out or marked as unnecesary reading so as not to fool the reader. (I suppose this is an editorial fault, but it's not like anyone really cares if the book difficult.)

The author exaggerates some situations to make a point, which makes you wonder if other situations too are really so. For example, to make the case that we live in a complex world, he says that a bathtub-shower combination has 23 parts. But most of those parts are assembled and are things you don't ordinarily touch or adjust. You don't have to make 23 adjustments to take a bath, there are perhaps 2 or 3 things so it's no nearly as complex as he says. So are the OTHER situations the author describes similarly overstated?

There are a few made-up words and grammatical uses that probably make sense to the author who's clearly an expert (and a teacher, hmm) in his own field. For example, the term "forcing function" comes up quite a bit. But unless you bookmark the original definition, it's easy to forget that "forcing" is an adjective, not some present-tense verb form. The term "forced function" would convey the same idea AND conform to users' grammatical expectations, instead of the author's.

The unusual use of English could have been helped if the author had provided a summary of his points and concepts. But for a book talking about principles, there is no user-friendly summary, it's all just a series of (amusing, to be sure) anecdotes.

Apparently the user is expected to have memorized the book, taken copious notes, or (happily?) flip back through the entire book. There is an index (but no glossary). Like the woman who had to make her own instruction manual for her (badly designed) VCR, YOU have to do the work of assembling what it is you want to know. Normally people do not need precise memory information but in this case, it would really help. A summary would turn the book into a text book, instead of a reading assignment.

However - buy this book and wave it around the office. At least once a week announce shriek loudly to no one, "The design of that (point) is hideous! Look, the designer totally left out any forcing function. And the mapping is hopeless." Then stomp away muttering like a big ol' queen and people will tremble before your superior judgement.

# # #

Many interesting anecdotes, but the book needs an editor, like how -as the author exhorts- a gadget needs user testing. Amusingly, the book violates many of its own principles.

The book is designed with unnecessary labels, so perhaps another design should be considered - as the author himself exhorts the reader (at some place in the book but I forget where -- see comment below). For example, a page with two illustrations has a caption that reads "A (above) shows an..." and "B (right) shows the..." However, neither illustration has an A or B on it, so a better design would have been to just say "The picture above shows an..." and skip the parenthetical, extra labels needed to overcome this design deficiency.

Wnen is page one not page one? Here! The book (my copy, anyway) has 24 pages of stuff before the book "begins" on page one. There is an introduction and a preface, an introduction to the introduction, I suppose, that fall outside the numbered pages. The text of these two (?) sections set the stage but if it's not worthy of being, say, Chapter 1, then perhaps it should be left out or marked as unnecesary reading so as not to fool the reader.

The author exaggerates some situations to make a point, which makes you wonder if other situations too are really so. For example, to make the case that we live in a complex world, he says that a bathtub-shower combination has 23 parts. But most of those parts are assembled and are things you don't ordinarily touch or adjust. You don't have to make 23 adjustments to take a bath, there are perhaps 2 or 3 things so it's no nearly as complex as he says. So are the OTHER situations the author describes similarly overstated?

There are a few made-up words and grammatical uses that probably make sense to the author who's clearly an expert (and a teacher, hmm) in his own field. For example, the term "forcing function" comes up quite a bit. But unless you bookmark the original definition, it's easy to forget that "forcing" is an adjective, not some present-tense verb form. The term "forced function" would convey the same idea AND conform to users' grammatical expectations, instead of the author's.

The unusual use of English could have been helped if the author had provided a summary of his points and concepts. But for a book talking about principles, there is no user-friendly summary, it's all just a series of (amusing, to be sure) anecdotes.

Apparently the user is expected to have memorized the book, taken copious notes, or (happily?) flip back through the entire book. There is an index (but no glossary). Like the woman who had to make her own instruction manual for her (badly designed) VCR, YOU have to do the work of assembling what it is you want to know. Normally people do not need precise memory information but in this case, it would really help. A summary would turn the book into a text book, instead of a reading assignment.

However - buy this book and wave it around the office. At least once a week announce shriek loudly to no one, "The design of that (point) is hideous! Look, the designer totally left out any forcing function. And the mapping is hopeless." Then stomp away muttering like a big ol' queen and people will respect your judgement.

# # #

While the principles outlined in the book do not involve rocket science, unwise application of these very principles can lead to serious trouble. One of the great examples cited in the book is mapping of functions and controls. On a very well respected Japanese car I noticed they had missed using this very principle, the result has been that invariably the wrong functions get activated (starting a CD vs the Tape); thank god this is not a critical function for the car.
While geeks and techies may find this book trivial, its lessons in keeping things simple are very important. Actually, designing products / services for easy use is not that easy, so I encourage you to look beyond the mediocre quality of printing, the apparently simple lessons, take what you can from the content, and apply it.

Upon opening "The Design of Everday Things", the first thing I noticed was that ironically, the book itself is not very well designed. The margins on both sides of the page are much too small, making it difficult to read the book without wrenching it open to reveal the text on the inside of the page. The black and white photos of examples are very low quality, and many appeared blurry. There are also several formatting errors. For instance, a paragraph that should have been all italicized *was* italicized at the bottom of the left-hand page, but when it continued at the top of the right-hand page, it no longer was. Finally, there is very little structure to the book. Norman lays out some design principles, but then doesn't provide any system or structure for elaborating on them. In short, I found it difficult to take seriously someone who does not practice what he preaches!

These design flaws aside, I was still mostly unimpressed with the book. Many of the later chapters just repeat what is said earlier, and whole sections of the book fall into the pattern of "Look at this bad example of design. Now look at this one. Now look..." The first few examples in each section can be entertaining and sometimes illuminating, but after them, reading becomes tedious.

I found that 80% of the value of the book was in the first chapter (pp 1-30), in which Norman lays out four important (and good) design principles. The rest of the book consists of no more than repetitive examples, with some misinformation mixed in. (For example, Norman claims that the human mind has a total storage capacity of 125 megabytes, and then implies that each "item" stored in memory is represented by the biological equivalent of just ten 1's and 0's. Both of these claims are patently false. See page 67.)

My last complaint about this book is how dated it is. Yes, the design principles still apply to computer user interface design, but whole sections of the book are comically dated. One example: "I am waiting for the day when portable computers become small enough that I can keep one with me at all times. I will definitely put all my reminding burdens upon it... It has to have a full, standard typewriter keyboard and reasonably large display. It needs good graphics... and a lot of memory--a huge amount, actually."

In sum, I was disappointed with Norman's book. It is poorly designed, quite dated in places, and most significantly, there just isn't very much material beyond the first chapter or two. Look elsewhere for design advice.

Upon opening "The Design of Everday Things", the first thing I noticed was that ironically, the book itself is not very well designed. The margins on both sides of the page are much too small, making it difficult to read the book without wrenching the it open to reveal the text on the inside of the page. The black and white photos of examples are very low quality, and many appeared blurry. There are also several formatting errors. For instance, a paragraph that should have been all italicized *was* italicized at the bottom of the left-hand page, but when it continued at the top of the right-hand page, it no longer was. Finally, there is very little structure to the book. Norman lays out some design principles, but then doesn't provide any system or structure for elaborating on them. In short, I found it difficult to take seriously someone who does not practice what he preaches!

These design flaws aside, I was still mostly unimpressed with the book. Many of the later chapters just repeat what is said earlier, and whole sections of the book fall into the pattern of "Look at this bad example of design. Now look at this one. Now look..." The first few examples in each section can be entertaining and sometimes illuminating, but after them, reading becomes tedious.

I found that 80% of the value of the book was in the first chapter (pp 1-30), in which Norman lays out four important (and good) design principles. The rest of the book consists of no more than repetitive examples, with some misinformation mixed in. (For example, Norman claims that the human mind has a total storage capacity of 125 megabytes, and implies that each "item" stored in memory is represented by the equivalent of ten 0's or 1's. These claims are patently false. See page 67.)

My last complaint about this book is how dated it is. Yes, the design principles still apply to computer user interface design, but whole sections of the book are comically dated. One example: "I am waiting for the day when portable computers become small enough that I can keep one with me at all times. I will definitely put all my reminding burdens upon it... It has to have a full, standard typewriter keyboard and reasonably large display. It needs good graphics... and a lot of memory--a huge amount, actually."

In sum, I was disappointed with Norman's book. It is not well designed and is quite dated, and most significantly, there just isn't very much material beyond the first chapter or two. Look elsewhere.