The Design of Everyday Things

As a human being we think we know other people and how they see and use products. This book tells many amusing anecdotes about products that were not successful because the designer made the things is a way he would have liked and not in the way real users use it. The book is written full of humor and with real passion for the subject.

This book is a classic in the sense that it was once groundbreaking, in that it pointed out obvious flaws in industrial and software design. However, a lack of any updates outside of a new introduction leaves the book stale and dated. Complaints about the design of 1980s DOS software and VCRs is now of only historical interest.

So often "design" books seem to go on about looks and "feel" yet only brush over the physiology of design. This book shows you how to think like a user, explorer like a user, error like a user and design for helping the user love your product.

Anyone reading this book will instantly appreciate truly good design over the average mud we currently live in.

Having heard that this was the seminal work in usabiliy, my expectations were probably too high.

Some of the principles laid out are indeed excellent and well illustrated.

The structure of the book is - ironically - not crystal clear. As I am reading the book I find myself looking back at the table of contents to understand the structure.

The writing style is slightly entertaining at first and you sympathize with the author hanging out himself as a clumsy and spacey academic. However, after the first 30 pages the rambling style and the somewhat unstructured content makes the book really boring. I had to push myself to finish it.

What strikes me is the lack of other books in this topic. Despite my criticism I'd be curious to read Norman's new book.

very nice delivery very fast response. One of the best sellers at amazon.
will do business any time with them.