samskivert: The Design of Everyday Things – Donald A. Norman (3)

03 March 2000

In this book, Norman describes the failings in the designs of various everyday things like doorknobs and light switches. Not a complainer, he is kind enough to share with us some psychological theories on how people use tools to accomplish tasks and on how they go about accomplishing tasks at all. These theories were in my opinion the most interesting part of the book because they spoke directly to the question of “What can I do as a designer to make my products more usable?” The rest of the book was focused on what *not* to do. In general, the examples were more clever than contrived and the book is worth reading for people with an interest in design.

©1999–2022 Michael Bayne