The Design of Everyday Things - Revised and Expanded Edition

This book is a must have for everybody. Everybody should read it once so that they can develop an appreciation for everyday design. products are beautiful and functional when they follow the guidelines given in this book. This book is not totally technical also, it is an easy read and makes you good with design.

Some good information here, but the author suffers from an overabundance of 'completeness' in explanation. The author is clearly an authority on the topic of human interaction and design, and can go on endlessly about common mistakes made by designers. But you may find yourself skimming through much of the information as you find many pages are taken to make fairly simple or obvious points.

The review by JMR was pretty dead on. I normally do not write take the time to write reviews, but I felt compelled to do so on this occasion. This book was required reading for an interactive web design course I took. We had quizzes on the readings so you couldn't skim too much. The class was great. This book was not. His writing style is annoying and overly drawn out. Just get to the point, you only had a few good ones anyway. If you don't have to read this book, then don't. If you do... sorry.

I found myself saying "okay, I get it!" before I even reach halfway through the book. If you can find it free (which you can for most books these days), then browse a PDF. Definitely one of those "first and last paragraph of each chapter only" books if you need to read it for class. You can find more informative and less condescending reads on design theory with a google search. There are much better books if you want to spend money. Do not at all recommend.

Some of the stories in the book are interesting in a software design class but this book is out of date for the most part. I think it mentioned that "everything would be on VHS in the future"...so yeah not a good choice for relevant things.

I really wanted to like this book. I was excited about it and I had heard really great things, but I was a little underwhelmed. It's kind of boring or long winded. Also, I prefer design books with nice paper, a pleasing layout, and color photos rather than rough paper with small black and white photos. I think this book could be transformed in a new edition and be even better.

I didn't finish this book because it was too boring. There were some interesting things (like examples of how memory can go wrong) but the infamous door handle example gets brought up over and over and over again. Jesus, I know there must be more things equally as/more interesting to talk about, please stop with the doors already. I would have preferred more cognitive science and less design manifesto ("design is important, design is important, design is important, blah blah blah"). I would have given it one star but I can see how it might be good for designers who are not very smart.

He could have gotten his points across in 10 pages or less. The concept behind the book is clear and insightful (though not so insightful that there aren't fair opposing viewpoints). The numerous personal anecdotes used to support his argument are often flawed, depicting design errors or calamities rather than a true opposing approach to design. The tone of the book is irritatingly narcissistic, organized like a series of long-winded rants on the current state of design, with some shameless self promotion and name-dropping thrown in for good measure.

The way it has been "revised and expanded" is clumsy. A few added sentences about touchscreens and some extra ramblings about how much success the author has had since the original edition actually serve to make the book more annoying than the original probably is. (It's likely a better idea to read the first edition and draw your own conclusions about the ideas' relevance today.)

If these points were made in a blog post or a short news article, you might simply dismiss them as interesting points made by a guy who is just overly opinionated, and not feel the need to write a negative the store review, but you tend to expect a book to have a more balanced approach (or at least I do.)

This book gets a lot of hype but actually is pretty bad. You don't need to look any further than his idea for light faceplates being ugly horizontal panels with a map on the room with each switch being where it is in the room to realize this guy is numpty.

The good:

All three stars I'm giving this are for the content. Norman's insights and principles are worthwhile and very useful. I don't agree with all of them, but most of them seem sound and the ones that don't still bring up good points to discuss.

The bad:

I wish an editor could convince him to cut this book in half. It's obvious that Norman is a academic and has been for a long time. He has that thing, that ivory tower myopia that comes off as pompous and self congratulatory. I had a really hard time wading through his never ending stories in the service of simple points. GET TO THE POINT, MAN. He also uses psychological terms that are terrible to try and parse (associative activation error? Are you kidding me? How about we call that the "ring ring, come in" error, so maybe people can remember it.) It's surprising that a book about design is so poorly designed on so many levels. Part of that is because this edition is an the store print on demand, and the layout sucks. Good lessons in here about how NOT to layout text. Part of it is also up to Norman, though. He likes using italics, I think as asides or illustrations of a point, but it's not consistent, and really just why, man? Why do that? Accept the cultural constraints of typography.

tl;dr

My advice is to read the last chapter, which is a nice succinct roundup of all the main points. If you want more information on any topic, look back through the book.

The Design of Everyday Things has some brilliant perspectives on the world that will change how you view any product. Namely:

Affordance - Clues about how an object should be used, typically provided by the object itself or its context
Signifiers - A signal of what actions are possible and how they should be done.

Once you learn this framing, you feel it everywhere. Your fridge "affords" you the ability to store food for long periods of time. You access it by grasping and pulling the handle or "signifier". With poorly designed objects, the affordance of what the job to be done is and the signifier of how to do it are unclear.

Mistake - Mistakes are errors in choosing an objective or specifying a method of achieving it
Slips - Errors in carrying out an intended method for reaching an objective

If you are trying to do the right thing and mess up, that's a slip. Either you lost your attention or the design signifying what you should do was unclear. But a mistake is choosing the wrong objective. There was not a mistake in execution, but in the strategy itself.

These insights will carry with me forever. But this relatively long book didn't have more takeaways for me. It reads very slowly, best done in short doses. I love the author's examples of bad vs. good design and you can't help but look at the world differently after reading this. But it could be edited down.

Not a very useful book.

Too much of the book was focused on how wrong it is to put a pull handle on a push door. Okay, kind of joking about that, but it seemed to be a recurring theme.

Many examples of obvious things, repetitive themes, and unsupported data.

Also outdated. Sure, good design concepts are timeless, but using DOS in a computer example should give the author a clue. Given this book's shortcomings, you would think the author would want to take every opportunity to try and improve it, and make it more appealing to a wider audience.

Also very unstructured. It jumps around a lot without making solid points.

Maybe worth the $12.00, but glad I didn't spend more.

Author Norman popularized the term user-centered design and a proponent of design thinking. I believe these approaches to design make it seem like the product has been designed with you in mind. He uses short illustrative case studies to describe the psychology of good and bad design. The rich theory is brought alive through the examination of light switches, door knobs and other day-to-day items we have common and frequent interaction. Here are some bon mots from the book:

“Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.”

“The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.”

“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.”

This is the most recent edition of a 25 year old book that remains relevant and entertaining. The 2013 edition has been updated (NEST is given its due) and includes two entirely new chapters. I like that Norman does not believe in human error as much as bad design (especially when I push on a door that should be pulled). All of this has been made more impressive given at time of this review the book is #1 in Industrial & Product Design, #1 in Retailing, and #4 in Applied Psychology.

The author and book both show their age when he complains over and over about his inability to operate a VCR or slide projector.
The ramblings go on and on with very little practical design instruction.

I got the kindle version of this book which was very low quality-- the pictures showed up in very odd locations.
I was very happy the store refunded me.

As an engineer, I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I found this book quite disappointing. Long on the obvious and short on good research or insight, longwinded and opinionated, the writer comes across as someone who is more hectoring than trying to improve the world or whatever. There does not seem to be much science or even sufficient observation to several of his examples, and he often chooses to ignore (or worse, plain does not see) the other side of the story.

For example, his improved kitchen range control diagram ignores the fact that he has decreased the burner area in comparison to the total surface area.

He says a vertical door handle signifies "pull". How so? He does not say.

In one sentence, he conflates "cultural" with "universal" ("some mappings are cultural... as in the universal standard that a rising level represents more"), without giving any examples of or insight into mappings that would differ from culture to culture, which would have been interesting to say the least.

His good examples, like the telephone, are severely dated now, and the ones that should be there are missing: controls on most cars today for example - he goes into car controls but he is rather benign towards them.

The switch arrangement that he designed for his home has worse switches (which is on and which is off?) than before, and what do the diagrams (circle with a bar thru it) mean? I daresay this experiment gives rather more insight into the writer's eccentric character than design credentials.

His explanation of why the file removal dialog does not work is wrong. It is not because the user is confirming the action not the filename (whatever does that mean?) but that the dialog becomes invisible (user automatically presses yes) after the first two dozen times it is encountered.

He has the annoying academic habit of leaving "obvious" work to the reader. For example, he does not say why the displayed clock+radio+tv+phone design is poor.

I could go on but I will not.

Norman's biography mentions that he has been an academic most of his life. However he has worked at Apple as User Experience Architect. While I don't want to infer too much from it, let me just point out that this was during Apple's worst years.

For those that expect people to distill design principles into short bullet points, they are missing the point. Great design is about being exhaustive in the multitude of ways every day people will use, abuse, and misuse objects.
What the author does fantastically well is provide a broad range of 'models' for thinking about a user and how they might think. Another thing the author does well is show you why good design really matters, and is different from the 'artistic' design that wins awards. Finally, he gives you very practical advice on how to use models, constraints, affordances, and other tools to design a better product. All of this in a package that is entertaining, even if some of the examples appear stretched and outdated.
Other books, like 4 steps to the epiphany and running lean, have taken these principles to their logical extension: go out and get in front of users if you want to design. Similarly, IDEO and other design consultancies have taken this advice to heart. So while there are ways to 'hack' your way through the design principles you get in the book, from an understanding perspective the book really forces you to spend some time considering the challenges of design.
This fact, I believe, is one of its greatest virtues. Most likely, if you've spent some time creating something, you will not walk away with your mind blow. Conversely, if you haven't, there will be a lot of 'aha' moments. Nonetheless for both groups I hope I've explained there's a lot to like here.

If design is of interest, this is a great starting point.

This book gets a lot of hype but actually is pretty bad. You don't need to look any further than his idea for light faceplates being ugly horizontal panels with a map on the room with each switch being where it is in the room to realize this guy is numpty.

The good:

All three stars I'm giving this are for the content. Norman's insights and principles are worthwhile and very useful. I don't agree with all of them, but most of them seem sound and the ones that don't still bring up good points to discuss.

The bad:

I wish an editor could convince him to cut this book in half. It's obvious that Norman is a academic and has been for a long time. He has that thing, that ivory tower myopia that comes off as pompous and self congratulatory. I had a really hard time wading through his never ending stories in the service of simple points. GET TO THE POINT, MAN. He also uses psychological terms that are terrible to try and parse (associative activation error? Are you kidding me? How about we call that the "ring ring, come in" error, so maybe people can remember it.) It's surprising that a book about design is so poorly designed on so many levels. Part of that is because this edition is an the store print on demand, and the layout sucks. Good lessons in here about how NOT to layout text. Part of it is also up to Norman, though. He likes using italics, I think as asides or illustrations of a point, but it's not consistent, and really just why, man? Why do that? Accept the cultural constraints of typography.

tl;dr

My advice is to read the last chapter, which is a nice succinct roundup of all the main points. If you want more information on any topic, look back through the book.

The Design of Everyday Things has some brilliant perspectives on the world that will change how you view any product. Namely:

Affordance - Clues about how an object should be used, typically provided by the object itself or its context
Signifiers - A signal of what actions are possible and how they should be done.

Once you learn this framing, you feel it everywhere. Your fridge "affords" you the ability to store food for long periods of time. You access it by grasping and pulling the handle or "signifier". With poorly designed objects, the affordance of what the job to be done is and the signifier of how to do it are unclear.

Mistake - Mistakes are errors in choosing an objective or specifying a method of achieving it
Slips - Errors in carrying out an intended method for reaching an objective

If you are trying to do the right thing and mess up, that's a slip. Either you lost your attention or the design signifying what you should do was unclear. But a mistake is choosing the wrong objective. There was not a mistake in execution, but in the strategy itself.

These insights will carry with me forever. But this relatively long book didn't have more takeaways for me. It reads very slowly, best done in short doses. I love the author's examples of bad vs. good design and you can't help but look at the world differently after reading this. But it could be edited down.

Not a very useful book.

Too much of the book was focused on how wrong it is to put a pull handle on a push door. Okay, kind of joking about that, but it seemed to be a recurring theme.

Many examples of obvious things, repetitive themes, and unsupported data.

Also outdated. Sure, good design concepts are timeless, but using DOS in a computer example should give the author a clue. Given this book's shortcomings, you would think the author would want to take every opportunity to try and improve it, and make it more appealing to a wider audience.

Also very unstructured. It jumps around a lot without making solid points.

Maybe worth the $12.00, but glad I didn't spend more.

Author Norman popularized the term user-centered design and a proponent of design thinking. I believe these approaches to design make it seem like the product has been designed with you in mind. He uses short illustrative case studies to describe the psychology of good and bad design. The rich theory is brought alive through the examination of light switches, door knobs and other day-to-day items we have common and frequent interaction. Here are some bon mots from the book:

“Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.”

“The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.”

“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.”

This is the most recent edition of a 25 year old book that remains relevant and entertaining. The 2013 edition has been updated (NEST is given its due) and includes two entirely new chapters. I like that Norman does not believe in human error as much as bad design (especially when I push on a door that should be pulled). All of this has been made more impressive given at time of this review the book is #1 in Industrial & Product Design, #1 in Retailing, and #4 in Applied Psychology.

The author and book both show their age when he complains over and over about his inability to operate a VCR or slide projector.
The ramblings go on and on with very little practical design instruction.

I got the kindle version of this book which was very low quality-- the pictures showed up in very odd locations.
I was very happy the store refunded me.

As an engineer, I wanted to like this book, I really did. But I found this book quite disappointing. Long on the obvious and short on good research or insight, longwinded and opinionated, the writer comes across as someone who is more hectoring than trying to improve the world or whatever. There does not seem to be much science or even sufficient observation to several of his examples, and he often chooses to ignore (or worse, plain does not see) the other side of the story.

For example, his improved kitchen range control diagram ignores the fact that he has decreased the burner area in comparison to the total surface area.

He says a vertical door handle signifies "pull". How so? He does not say.

In one sentence, he conflates "cultural" with "universal" ("some mappings are cultural... as in the universal standard that a rising level represents more"), without giving any examples of or insight into mappings that would differ from culture to culture, which would have been interesting to say the least.

His good examples, like the telephone, are severely dated now, and the ones that should be there are missing: controls on most cars today for example - he goes into car controls but he is rather benign towards them.

The switch arrangement that he designed for his home has worse switches (which is on and which is off?) than before, and what do the diagrams (circle with a bar thru it) mean? I daresay this experiment gives rather more insight into the writer's eccentric character than design credentials.

His explanation of why the file removal dialog does not work is wrong. It is not because the user is confirming the action not the filename (whatever does that mean?) but that the dialog becomes invisible (user automatically presses yes) after the first two dozen times it is encountered.

He has the annoying academic habit of leaving "obvious" work to the reader. For example, he does not say why the displayed clock+radio+tv+phone design is poor.

I could go on but I will not.

Norman's biography mentions that he has been an academic most of his life. However he has worked at Apple as User Experience Architect. While I don't want to infer too much from it, let me just point out that this was during Apple's worst years.

For those that expect people to distill design principles into short bullet points, they are missing the point. Great design is about being exhaustive in the multitude of ways every day people will use, abuse, and misuse objects.
What the author does fantastically well is provide a broad range of 'models' for thinking about a user and how they might think. Another thing the author does well is show you why good design really matters, and is different from the 'artistic' design that wins awards. Finally, he gives you very practical advice on how to use models, constraints, affordances, and other tools to design a better product. All of this in a package that is entertaining, even if some of the examples appear stretched and outdated.
Other books, like 4 steps to the epiphany and running lean, have taken these principles to their logical extension: go out and get in front of users if you want to design. Similarly, IDEO and other design consultancies have taken this advice to heart. So while there are ways to 'hack' your way through the design principles you get in the book, from an understanding perspective the book really forces you to spend some time considering the challenges of design.
This fact, I believe, is one of its greatest virtues. Most likely, if you've spent some time creating something, you will not walk away with your mind blow. Conversely, if you haven't, there will be a lot of 'aha' moments. Nonetheless for both groups I hope I've explained there's a lot to like here.

If design is of interest, this is a great starting point.

This is definitely the best comprehensive introduction/manifesto for "design thinking" that I have ever read. Norman moves through a variety of concepts using everyday examples, and allows you to map the language of design onto day-to-day life. His languuage is clear, but also—importantly—it's passionate. He is not just an explainer, he is also an advocate. He advocates a particular philosophy of design that emphasizes the utility of objects, placing this feature over and above 'features' and 'featurism' as a phenomenon of making objects more complex or comprehensive at the expense of their immediate comprehensibility. This book is so flatly valuable that I'd recommend it to everyone. Thinking about objects in terms of design removes this strange, perhaps uniquely American sense of incompetence/guilt that I see as a result of poorly design objects. Placing the burden of responsibility on designers and engineers (rather than users) is entirely more reasonable than the reverse. Blaming users for not understanding products is like blaming restaurant guests for not enjoy a poorly-cooked meal. -Ryan Mease

Don Norman tackles the topic of design from many angles, enough for a layman to form a good “conceptual model” of how designs are applied to products and our everyday lives.

Consisting of 300 pages, this book is by no means an easy read (although I was able to finish it in five days). It requires concentration and constant reviews to tie all of the concepts together. But alas, it gives a very comprehensive explanation on the subject.

I particularly appreciate the author's inclusion of the last two chapters - “Design Thinking” and “Design in the World of Business”. He speaks from his long years in the industry and reveals real-world dangers of designers focusing solely on the perfect design. As someone who works in a company that develop and markets products, I see great truth in this. It’s extremely practical advice for anyone who takes part in product development.

Lastly, I would like to quote sentences in the book that helped me gain great insights.

“The tendency to stop seeking reasons as soon as a human error has been found is widespread.”
It’s always easier to find a reason to blame a human.

“The best way of mitigating slips is to provide perceptible feedback.”
By adding subtle feedback to operations, we can greatly reduce the probability of slips.

“Design understand what people really need. Marketing understands what people actually buy.”
Striking a balance is key.

“Good design requires stepping back from competitive pressures and ensuring that the entire product be consistent, coherent, and understandable.”
Products are prone to competition’s influence in becoming needlessly complicated and less unique.

First thing to note- this is not a easy read. Norman is often long-winded and old fashioned, strangely obsessed with having "...hands full of packages."

However after reading this book, I have noticed that I'm far more aware of both well designed and poorly designed products, especially in the physical world. I find myself stopping to consider "why did this object not work the way I expected it to?" This seems to happen most often with doors and door handles, not sure if Norman's obsession with doors rubbed off on me, but this attention to the mundane functionality of every day life is a positive for someone that works in the product creation process.

Especially interesting were his ideas of user testing and iterative development- ideas that are at the core of modern Lean software development practices. I also found it fun to read his thoughts about the future, things that were amazing to him but are common place today- smartphones, calendars that sync across different devices, etc.

Overall I think this book is worth reading, but it is not a earth shattering text as some people make it out to be- especially if you've had any kind of exposure to modern software development practices and Lean thinking.

Don Norman does a fantastic job introducing the world of Human-Centered Design to the casual reader. He juxtaposes the pure logic of the engineer with the user-focus of the designer; exploring the idiosyncrasies of everyday objects with which the reader is almost certainly familiar--the simple office door, for example.

The Design of Everyday Things lends an expert overview of the roles psychology, cultural inertia, and technological advances play in the successes and failures of consumer goods. The design principles introduced here are at once a measuring and guiding rod: they give the reader the tools to evaluate not only the designs of past and present, but the means toward ever-improving design in the future.

The subtitle for this book should have been petty whining about mundane issues. If you are the type of person who always complains that they are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter, then you will love this book. The author evidently has too much time on his hands and has nothing more illuminating to write about than to find fault with, and endlessly complain about, the most trivial design issues. Light switches that don't line up with lights, stove top controls that don't line up, etc., etc. This book is neither interesting nor insightful. There is a definite lack of imagination at work (sadly, considering this is a book about design) which keeps the author from being able to appreciate simplicity and display creativity.

This book was recommended to me, but I definitely cannot do the same.

I could try a synopsis, but the back cover does that just fine. Instead, I'll just mention my favorite takeaway from this systematic, insightful, yet surprisingly easy-to-read book: I am justified in my rage against inanimate objects!

Well, perhaps not in losing my temper, but if the thing doesn't work the way I think it should, or if I can't figure it out without reading the manual, then I now have a certain theoretical justification to claim it's the thing's fault. If I can explain why it's poor design and point out a better solution, I get carte blanche for griping - and Mr. Norman has taught me several hallmarks of good design that objects often don't exhibit. (Lack of discoverability seems to be the main culprit in many cases, but that may be related to my personality.)

Have you ever been unable to figure out how to work an appliance, a remote control, a computer program, or even a door. You might blame yourself or your ineptness with all things mechanical and computer. Author Donald Norman says to not blame yourself, blame the designers.

Bad design is serious stuff. It's not just dropping that call you were trying to transfer on the high-tech office phone system. Human error is often the cause of a plane crash, a ship collision, or a nuclear power plant accident. The human in "human error" isn't always the operator, but sometimes the equipment designer.

This book defines the principles of a user-centered approach to design. This approach puts usability over aesthetics. Not that a product shouldn't be beautiful, but usability should always trump beauty where they conflict.

One principle that he describes is affordance. An object should give you a clue as to how to use it. A metal plate on a door tells you to push, not pull. Some doors have push bars that are symmetrical across the door. This door cries out push, but which side: the right or the left? Norman goes over each principle in detail and gives examples that exemplify and violate the principle.

Norman also discusses the role of culture and customs in design. If you turn the steering wheel clockwise, the car will turn right. You can expect that to be true if you were on a boat. In this case, the boat's wheel in no way indicates which way the boat will turn if you turn the wheel clockwise as affordance would dictate. It is purely customary, and a completely valid way to design. In fact, to go against customs could be disastrous. (Incidentally, a recent article claims that the clash of two different steering systems played a crucial part in the sinking of the Titanic. Talk about the consequences of bad design.)

There is far more in this book than I can write about. I found it incredibly interesting. It is a must for anyone studying design; and not just for industrial designers, this book is instructional for both web site and computer application interface designers. For others, it could be an interesting read if you'd like to understand the process of good design and why you push the pull open door.

The Psychology of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman is a book that gives an interesting treatment of usability and design of everything from doors to computers. Over seven chapters and 217 pages (of core content), Norman lays out a very logical and technical treatment of the subject. I am a software development professional, and I choose this book to look for higher level principles that I could apply in my line of work. This has been done very successfully in the realm of design patterns in software that have their conceptual root in architectural patterns.

Norman gives a number of illustrations based on who people have difficulties using doors of varying styles. Who has not had a mishap of trying to pull a "push" door or push a "pull" door? While giving the reader something that they can relate to, Norman outlines the factors that distinguish good designs from poor ones. He talks about the visible queues that objectives give users as to the proper use in addition to feedback that the user has accomplished their goal in using objects. Some examples are a bit dated (given that the book was published 20 years ago) such as the difficulties of slide projectors and VCRs. However the principles that he relates transcend time and apply as much today as they did 20, 40, and 100 years ago. It is also interesting that he calls for things yet invented that are now in existence such as the PDA/smartphone and CDs that contain the artist and song information for display on your radio. At the end, I got a bit of a laugh from his trepidation about the issues that would come from being able to search the world's collection of hypertext documents. However, the early days of the internet did prove his fears correct. We take Google's work for granted.

Further, he goes into the psychology of actions in which explains both execution and evaluation of actions, i.e. one has to know the proper uses of things as well as interpret the aftereffects of their actions. For execution, people have what they know and what the environment tells them. Many times people can use objects correctly the first time without any prior knowledge because the design gives clues and constraints that direct and limit what people can actually do with them. Evaluation is important because for a variety of reasons people make mistakes. Sometimes the user is at fault, but other times the design gives no information or worse misinformation about how the object should be used.

With these concepts in mind, Norman addresses how to avoid the common pitfalls of unusable design. As is often the case there are trade offs. Devices with fewer controls look simpler, but this often requires a single control to handle multiple functions in context specific ways. On the other hand if an object has more controls, it will seem more complex to the user. He suggests segmentation and making only part of the controls visible at once as ways to combat the complexity.

I was pleased to see that Norman deals to some extent with computers in his text. He asserts that programmers are often poor designers, and my own experience supports this claim. As someone who has written a lot of "behinds the scenes" software, I know that my strength is not in user interface design. In my current role as a manager, however, I now have new ideas to consider for evaluating user interfaces that my team creates.

The only downside of the book is that it really reads like a textbook, and I found it hard to take in large doses. I am glad that I completed it, but it took me a few weeks rather than the couple of days that a book of this length would normally take. If you are willing to put in a little effort, you will find valuable information here.

Overall: B

Not all objects are created equal. This enjoyable book contains many examples of both bad and good product design, including stories on walking into doors, the evilness of British water taps, and unusable teapots (featured on the cover). The author discusses the psychology behind everyday things, and underlying principles behind why some objects delight, while others frustrate. It forever changes the way you'll look at the 'interfaces' of the world around you.

I read this long ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a novice in Human Factors Engineering.
It was a very insightful and helpful basic book, and I have always remembered the stories and principles from it, both in user interface design and in everyday life.
For instance, just the other day I was in Home Depot buying some long plumbing pipes, and the guy helping load the truck wanted to run the pipes from the dashboard back through the rear window and out the bed of the truck.... having read the one with the metal and the gate and the truck and the neck, I shuddered and insisted there was no way my truck was going to be loaded that way ???

I read this book (1989 edition) in 2001 after reading a lot of good and excellent reviews of the book on the store. I got a copy from the library and read the book over a couple of days.
Let me say that this book is an excellent read for anyone who has either suffered through modern (VCR, computers) and not so modern contraptions (doors) as well as for those who actually design these things. The author has used many, many examples to drive, no, hammer the point accross that most everyday appliances that we use are (a)Not well thought designs, (b)Form seems to precede function, (c)Difficulty in using a product seems more often than not the fault of the end-user.

The book therefore is a fascinating read on how so many bright people can come up with so many not so bright designs. The book is not too big, so can be read in a relatively short period of time.

There are faults with the book too - in trying to drive home the point that many everyday things are poorly designed, the author becomes repetitive. Even with a gentle style of writing and criticism the book at times reads like a litany of complaints. And some of the author's suggestions as to what he thinks might be good design examples I couldn't agree with whole heartedly - eg. he thinks a computer mouse should not have 2 buttons, one might do.

Overall, the book is a must read. I can suggest for those who wish to read something similar but deals more with computers and modern electronics a couple of books by Alan Cooper - 'About Face' and 'The Inmates Are Running The Asylum', as well as most books by Steve McConnell.
One interesting note - the author in 1989 states that the computing power to put a small computer in one's plam was there, and within 10 years he expected such a device to become perfect. That would mean 1999. We had the Palm 3 and 5 in 1999. Perfect? Maybe not. But what strikes me is that the author in 1989 could think to give the technology 10 years to mature.

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.

The Design of Everyday Things created my fundamental understanding of functionality. Why couldn't I figure something out without reading the directions? Because the designer piled too many functions on each button. This should be required reading for all Industrial Design students (maybe it is) and for anyone who tries to use modern devices. The earlier title, The Psychology of Everyday Things, suggests the thinking that should be involved in design. All in all, a terrific discussion.

Let me start by acknowledging that the book is not perfect. The end notes are annoying and Norman can have a tendancy to ramble and I guess that not everyone would find that charming. However, I assert that the strengths of the book more than make up for its weaknesses-- it is an important book, and one that anyone engaged in designing things for other people should read.
The central point is simple-- the needs of the user are different from the needs of the designer. The designer might want everyone's actions with his system to be precise, the user might need to have a "good enough" range of precision approximation. The designer wants to make the knobs the same so they look good together, the user wants to be able to tell quickly which knob applies to which function. It's a basic concept that can't (particularly on the Internet today) be repeated often enough.
Norman looks at the kinds of errors people make in usage and discusses how designers can plan to prevent these kind of errors. He discusses some of the basic things that users find valuable and walks the reader through some classic (and often funny, because so recognizable) design errors.
The writing is clean and (with the exception of the aforementioned rambling) very clear. Norman's voice is full of humor and a real passion for the subject, and that voice is conveyed very well by the book.

In a way, this is a self-help book. But to call it that is to damn it, so instead we must term it something else. The appellation, however distasteful, fits for POET (as Norman abbreviates it, later retitled The Design of Everyday Things) goes a long way in explaining just exactly why and how we make everyday mistakes, and how we can help ourselves and others escape these problems. I believe it was Pat Cadigan who I first heard sum up this book in the memorable phrase, "I didn't fail the technology; the technology failed me." Every time I find myself pushing on the hinge side of a door to open it, or push the door when I should have pulled, I quote that phrase. It wasn't me who failed to understand how the door work--the door failed to provide me with the necessary clues to work it. User error, as Norman notes in POET, is a misnomer; many, many times it is a design error.
This book should be read by everyone, I think, for it deals with everybody. I know of no one who has not cursed at a computer program, or some door, or similar. But only by demanding "user centered design" can we escape the tyranny of form over function. To illustrate, take the example of file names in DOS. Yes, we have achieved the standardization of 8 character names and 3 character extensions. But this is an outdated and frustration convention. It is a holdover from CP/M days (I believe) when computers lacked the memory and storage capacity of today's computers. But until enough people demand a change, this inefficient and confusing convention will be with us. Macintosh owners, although free of this particular evil, can no doubt recall various designs that they wish to change as well. The difference is in philosophy: the Macintosh was designed first for the user, and it is only the "creeping featurism" of established programs today that threaten its user friendliness.

Although this book is a product of the 1980's, its essential premise is not dated nor obsolete. Dr. Norman vividly illustrates the good and bad of design, and provides an excellent guidebook for the understanding of basic user-centric design in products, fixtures, software, and the everyday things that make up our world.
I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the design and creation of software, architecture, or consumer products. You will find some dated, quaint information within its pages, such as the descriptions of the "computer notepad" and hypertext (both of which came to fruition with Palm Computers and the Web), but, as a whole, the book is a collection of relevant, interesting material. It is an excellent starting point for the study of design.
For those interested in additional study on software and user interface design (programmers, such as I), I recommend Alan Cooper's books on user interface design, and ANY of Jakob Nielsen's books. In addition, the Edward Tufte trilogy on visual representations is extremely good, although not software-specific.

For website designers? Yes. Even though this book was written before the Web was invented, what it will teach you about design is as old as dirt and as new as tomorrow. It teaches you, not how to do things, but what things to do. There are thousands of books to tell you how to build a website, but very few to tell you how to design one. This is one of those few ... even though it doesn't say anything about websites at all. If you're designing any website, whether for a Fortune 500 company or a yard sale, you NEED this book. You need to learn what it has to teach you. After that, it's all just mechanics.

If you are stymied when trying to set a $10 alarm clock, or find yourself pushing on doors clearly labeled "PULL" or you let your VCR player blink 12:00 because it defies your best programming efforts, then a visit with the good Dr. Donald Norman will set everything aright.

In "The Psychology of Everyday Things, " Norman, a cognitive psychologist, explains why gadgets don't work the way we expect them to. Better yet, he spotlights devices that *do* work well, effortlessly engaging our intuitive sense of the way things ought to behave. Along the way, we learn a great deal about the way our minds unconsciously read cues gathered from objects, impelling us to interact with them in certain ways. A flat plate on a door, for instance, sends the message, "push me." A raised handle on a door insists, "grab me and pull!" Yet how many doors meant for pushing are fitted with raised handles? After reading this book, you will never look at a door, or a computer screen, or a even a car radio the same way. And you will never again take for granted the gifted designers and interface engineers who allow us to use their products without effort.

The driest parts of the book are those where Norman delves into psychological basis for his observations. These sections are short enough and easily skipped if you aren't interested, allowing you to enjoy his many fascinating examples of good and bad design.

DOET has been lying on my shelf for yeaaars and I'm glad I finally got around to it. It's a nice book, but somewhat repetitive, though. I would've liked it better if the book was half its current size and more compact. I actually liked the fact that he used simple examples like switches, faucets and door knobs to illustrate his points. The fundamental design principles would be pretty much the same whether it's the panel of a VCR or the cockpit of an airplane. Moreover, with simple examples, the principles get illuminated better whereas, otherwise, the complexity might distract us from those basic principles being pointed out, the same way sages say it's best to understand life from the vantage point of poverty. So all that is good with me. However, some of the explanations were a bit too pedantic for my taste. For example, when he talks about the stages of action or the types of errors. That actually made me lose my gumption and towards the middle of the book I was basically scanning through the pages. The last chapter User Centered Design, though, was a good summary.

The following is the message that Don Norman gives: There has to be a fine balance between the usability, aesthetics, manufacturability (DFM) and economics. Designers should attempt to interact with the actual users of the product and guard against the worship of complexity. Be aware of the type of users and the range of usage environment. What are the characteristics of a good design? one that provides feedback to the user (visual, auditory or tactile); the causality of input actions against output results should be clear; it should take into account the affordance of the element/product (by this he means the perceived uses it can be put to); visibility is important; clear mappings between the controls and the intended actions; potential user errors should be factored in; effective use of constraints (physical, semantic, cultural and logical); beware of feature creep; form should follow function; errors should possibly be reversible; should provide a clear conceptual model for the user.

Good points here. If you're into usability (everyone should because we all create something or the other) then you can add it into your mix of thoughts.

While many parts of this book are somewhat dated it makes one wonder why some of the very poor design fundamentals pointed out in the book continue today. Why is it that you still find new buildings going up with a pull bar on a door that needs to be pushed to be opened? I even encountered a sliding door last week that had a vertical pull bar. How would a person know by looking at the door that it should be slid instead of pulled? Of course, you don't know and that is the sort of thing that is covered in this book. There is really no reason not to make things much easier to use except poor design.
How relevant is this book? I became exposed to it as required reading for computer engineering studies. Maybe the next generation of designers will be able to think ahead about things and design them better. Heaven knows it won't hurt Microsoft to have someone who understands a user interface better.
So, is it of value to people other than designers? I think so. For one thing it has changed the way that I look at things and when choosing a purchase I look at design considerations. After all, why shouldn't I pick the one that is better designed on the outside? Maybe that reflects a better design on the inside. I've even found that I think of things I learned in this book when doing something around the house such as adding a set of doors to enclose my bookcase or when I enclosed my porch. It has affected a lot of things that I do not to mention it is simply a delightful read and written in a very easy style.

I had this book on my list for quite some time, but somehow it was getting postponed. Now that I've read it, I'm glad I did.

The concepts mentioned by Donald were no doubt very interesting, but the examples given were kinda too 'obvious'. I wish the author chose more current products to make his point.

The author hit the nail when he compares the knowledge in the world versus the knowledge in the head. Even before I started with the book, I was somewhat aware of the pros and cons of one or the other.

"Gaining the advantages of knowledge in the world means losing the advantages of knowledge in the head."

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.

This is one of the seminal works in the field of User Centered Design. Norman wrote this book well before the Windows operating system was as familiar as the Golden Arches--which only reinforces the idea that certain basic usability principles transcend all forms of objects--from glass doors to Windows Explorer.
Norman does a great job of describing why and how we successfully and unsuccessfully use everyday objects with relevant anecdotes. His stories are usually accompanied with lists of principles that explain good design and account for human behavior. For example, the fundamental principals of designing for people are to: Provide a good conceptual model, make controls visible and to constantly provide feedback to the user.
So how does one employ good user-centered design? Norman recapitulates his points at the end of the book by listing the seven UCD principles for transforming difficult tasks into easy ones:
1. Use both knowledge in the world and in the head
2. Simplify the structure of tasks
3. Make things visible
4. Get the mappings right
5. Exploit the powers of constraints-Natural & Artificial
6. Design for Error
7. When all else fails, standardize
It's mandatory reading for any usability software engineer but also an interesting and well written book for anyone who's ever pushed a "pull door" or scalded themselves in the shower (which is all of us).

Don Norman's POET (this book was initially called Psychology of Everyday Things) is a required text in many human-machine interaction programs around the world for a good reason: it is a wonderfully accessible (to novices), yet comprehensive primer on ergonomics covering topics ranging from conceptual models and mappings to memory and errors.
Don applies a plethora of cognitive psychology principles to explain why some devices just don't work well for us, humans, while others--those designed with the human in mind--do. If you are a student of human-computer interaction you can easily apply Norman's concepts in designing more usable GUI's. In fact, I have used this book as a foundation for the first chapter of my own web interface design book, at Paul gokin dot com, in which I have applied many of Norman's design principle to web GUI design.
What makes this book special, however, is that Norman supports his points with vivid real world examples, transforming what could be a dull, scholarly treatise into a page-turner. In fact it is the examples that had stayed with me for years after I put the book down.
Regardless of what your design challenge is, if you're designing it to be used by a human, this book is a must read.

"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

Have you ever been taking a shower in a hotel room, having no clue how to adjust the water temperature? Are your refrigerator cooling 24 hours/day because you never figured out the panels of buttons? Donald A. Norman takes a look at all those frustrating user experiences in a very funny and insightful manner, but instead of just pointing out all the stupidities, he also uses his knowledge of human psychology to explain exactly why so many user interfaces are so troublesome. This book is not about software design, but is nevertheless extremely useful for anybody involved in the development of software since Mr. Norman focusses his attention on topics which are fundamental for any kind of user interface (wheter in the form of door handles or advanced airplane controlling software applications). The design of the book itself is fairly boring with dull black and white photographs, simple line drawings and a general bad layout. In spite of this being a book on design, it is however not that important, since Mr. Norman delivers his message in a very elegant and witty manner. Therefore this book get 5 stars of 5 possible.

This book has many points on good design and makes me wonder how on Earth we can have so many examples of bad design. The book has many anecdotes that break up the monotony, but they don't last long. I find that even with all its very good points and humor it is still extremely slow to read and is quite repetitive. Still, I find myself looking at things differently now. I am now looking at object's design more and more and thinking how it could be improved or why it is good in the first place. Many of the good points of the book are also common sense ideas, but sometimes overlooked. The Design of Everday Things unfortunately tries to put these simple ideas into more technical words and thoughts than they should be, and I wonder if this book in itself is really an example of good design or bad design.

I’m a User Experience Designer and was hoping to find ways to improve my design thinking skills, but I think this book is more meant for readers who are completely new to design principles. He provides a lot of great examples of design fails and why they were poorly designed, but in my opinion it dragged on quite a bit more than needed. The reading was very dry and hard to get through, I only ended up reading the first two chapters.

I had this book on my list for quite some time, but somehow it was getting postponed. Now that I've read it, I'm glad I did.

The concepts mentioned by Donald were no doubt very interesting, but the examples given were kinda too 'obvious'. I wish the author chose more current products to make his point.

The author hit the nail when he compares the knowledge in the world versus the knowledge in the head. Even before I started with the book, I was somewhat aware of the pros and cons of one or the other.

"Gaining the advantages of knowledge in the world means losing the advantages of knowledge in the head."

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.

This is one of the seminal works in the field of User Centered Design. Norman wrote this book well before the Windows operating system was as familiar as the Golden Arches--which only reinforces the idea that certain basic usability principles transcend all forms of objects--from glass doors to Windows Explorer.
Norman does a great job of describing why and how we successfully and unsuccessfully use everyday objects with relevant anecdotes. His stories are usually accompanied with lists of principles that explain good design and account for human behavior. For example, the fundamental principals of designing for people are to: Provide a good conceptual model, make controls visible and to constantly provide feedback to the user.
So how does one employ good user-centered design? Norman recapitulates his points at the end of the book by listing the seven UCD principles for transforming difficult tasks into easy ones:
1. Use both knowledge in the world and in the head
2. Simplify the structure of tasks
3. Make things visible
4. Get the mappings right
5. Exploit the powers of constraints-Natural & Artificial
6. Design for Error
7. When all else fails, standardize
It's mandatory reading for any usability software engineer but also an interesting and well written book for anyone who's ever pushed a "pull door" or scalded themselves in the shower (which is all of us).

Don Norman's POET (this book was initially called Psychology of Everyday Things) is a required text in many human-machine interaction programs around the world for a good reason: it is a wonderfully accessible (to novices), yet comprehensive primer on ergonomics covering topics ranging from conceptual models and mappings to memory and errors.
Don applies a plethora of cognitive psychology principles to explain why some devices just don't work well for us, humans, while others--those designed with the human in mind--do. If you are a student of human-computer interaction you can easily apply Norman's concepts in designing more usable GUI's. In fact, I have used this book as a foundation for the first chapter of my own web interface design book, at Paul gokin dot com, in which I have applied many of Norman's design principle to web GUI design.
What makes this book special, however, is that Norman supports his points with vivid real world examples, transforming what could be a dull, scholarly treatise into a page-turner. In fact it is the examples that had stayed with me for years after I put the book down.
Regardless of what your design challenge is, if you're designing it to be used by a human, this book is a must read.

"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

Have you ever been taking a shower in a hotel room, having no clue how to adjust the water temperature? Are your refrigerator cooling 24 hours/day because you never figured out the panels of buttons? Donald A. Norman takes a look at all those frustrating user experiences in a very funny and insightful manner, but instead of just pointing out all the stupidities, he also uses his knowledge of human psychology to explain exactly why so many user interfaces are so troublesome. This book is not about software design, but is nevertheless extremely useful for anybody involved in the development of software since Mr. Norman focusses his attention on topics which are fundamental for any kind of user interface (wheter in the form of door handles or advanced airplane controlling software applications). The design of the book itself is fairly boring with dull black and white photographs, simple line drawings and a general bad layout. In spite of this being a book on design, it is however not that important, since Mr. Norman delivers his message in a very elegant and witty manner. Therefore this book get 5 stars of 5 possible.

This book has many points on good design and makes me wonder how on Earth we can have so many examples of bad design. The book has many anecdotes that break up the monotony, but they don't last long. I find that even with all its very good points and humor it is still extremely slow to read and is quite repetitive. Still, I find myself looking at things differently now. I am now looking at object's design more and more and thinking how it could be improved or why it is good in the first place. Many of the good points of the book are also common sense ideas, but sometimes overlooked. The Design of Everday Things unfortunately tries to put these simple ideas into more technical words and thoughts than they should be, and I wonder if this book in itself is really an example of good design or bad design.

I’m a User Experience Designer and was hoping to find ways to improve my design thinking skills, but I think this book is more meant for readers who are completely new to design principles. He provides a lot of great examples of design fails and why they were poorly designed, but in my opinion it dragged on quite a bit more than needed. The reading was very dry and hard to get through, I only ended up reading the first two chapters.

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.

He uses the information processing model to base all design upon. Its a cognition model, the book is really good, also read "Things that make us Smart" and "Emotional Design" by him. Collectively, this knowledge is extremely useful in whatever field your in. You'll produce better work. Note, that he writes it as a conversation, not as an instruction manual. so you will need to take your own notes and organize them if you intend on referring to them often during your work.

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.

This is Norman's best book. It's an argument against sleek, function-hiding Danish Modern Design. The chapter on his experiences with un-discoverable door interfaces alone is worth the price of the book.

Although I took copious notes while reading The D.O.E.T., Donald Norman's ideas on design are more than just noteworthy. The design principles he outlines here could be used as the standard when designing anything new. His debrief on Principles of Good Design, Conceptual Models, Forcing Functions, Human Error, Gulf of Execution and Evaluation is excellent.

I would recommend this book to those seeking an introduction into product design - consider using it as a supplementary reference to a more robust academic text.

I, too, found some of the content rather dated. However, Donald Norman's underlying design principles are still relevant and still applicable to present day design, which is a testament to his years of arduous research.

An excellent book looking at usability and design. It's not hard to see why this book is a set text on many HCI and general Comp. Sci. courses worldwide.

Charmingly dated (Norman imagines a "pocket size computing device which has huge storage and is able to connect to my laboratory and home computers possibly electromagetically"), it will definitely change how I look at almost everything (everyday things, HCIs, etc.) and how I design.

In fact, just six months later, to say this book changed my life would be an understatement.

A number of reviewers have made points about the end notes. I corresponded with Professor Norman on this subject. He informed me that more people comment on the usability (or lack thereof) of the endnotes than of any other aspect of the book. Having said that, don't let this design error interfere with the great content.
This book is not for people with strong backgrounds in usability and design. It is an excellent introduction and overview. Prof. Norman makes many great points which were new to me because I hadn't studied these concepts before. If you design anything and you haven't studied usability, get this book.

This is not a book on Psychology, nor it is written just for designers. Every person who read this book will find interesting information and will recognize some own experiences trying to make some devices work, and I do not mean complex ones, but as simple as a light switch.
Actually, as the title reads, the book deals with "everyday things," though there are some parts that use examples like a nuclear plant or a cockpit.
Of course, we do not need to read this book to use such things, but you would enjoy reading it.

Okay, the guy makes his points rather well. But there are a few things about this book that I found very frustrating.
He keeps jumping around between plain text and italics. Some headings are all in caps, some are not. Some headings are left justified, some right justified. I'm sure there's a meaningful structure to this in the author's own mind, but when you can only see two pages at a time it's impossible for the reader to see what that structure is. Big headings and smaller subheadings would be a better layout, with the anecdotes in a blockquote format rather than the off-putting italics. The author really needs to practice a bit of what he preaches.
Also, it could use an update. For example there's this paragraph that promises that within five years we'll have a handheld device that will allow us to keep track of appointments, take notes etc. 10 out of 10 for accurate prediction of the PDA, but it's time to update the text. Then the photos are pretty old as well. Makes it look like the book hasn't changed since the early 80s and left me wondering if he's aware of the design of modern everyday things or the fact that computer users are better educated now than they used to be, or if he knows that user interfaces have improved at all.
I think that the original title, the Psychology of Everyday Things would have been a more accurate title for the book since a lot of time is spent describing the minute details of human thought. Maybe a subtitle would be in order, something like "What designers need to know about the psychology of consumers."

Although I only read about half of this book, what I did read was quite good. This book presents some interesting insight into the design of everyday things, and provides amusing examples. I would recommend this book to engineers, designers, manufacturers, and pretty much anyone that is involved in the design process of any product. Some of the material is common sense, but after reading it from this book it just seems to sink in better.

When I started my first job out of college I was given a copy of this book by my boss. Since then, I've had a chance to do GUI design for the web as well as client/server applications. This book has proven invaluable. It completely changed the way I thought about design and usability. The examples given show how everything can (and should) be made more usable... every time I turn on the wrong burner on my stove, or pull on a door I should be pushing I curse the designer who should have read this. The examples may not be specifically about computer user interface design, but the lessons learned are directly applicable.

We all go through life frustrated by stupid design of everyday things. This book reassures you that you're not cracking up, and that there are others out there who feel the same way.
However, the book is now 15 years old, so many of the examples quoted seem very quaint, and the photographs seem even older - like scenes from the earliest 'James Bond' movies.
There needs to be a more upto date view of good/bad design - design principles are not immortal - what was good yesterday might not be any good for tomorrow - eg what was good in a black & white world might be irrelevant in a colour world.

This is the 2nd edition from 2013. The first edition was in 1988. I wish I had found this book then. It gives a much clearer understanding of product design than any I have encountered in a 40 year STEM career. Buy it, keep it and give it as a gift.

As a game designer, I approached this book with an open mind, not knowing if I could pick anything up from it. It surprised me though. Although the book was written in 1987 and could use an updated version, the design principles stated there remain relevant up to today, even in a field that had been rarely touched upon when that book was written. (Yes, it does talk about games, but only in terms of difficulty level, and only pertaining to D&D.) In particular, the game designer could look at the Seven Stages of Action to see if her game is performing up to par on the usability front.

You might not find anything here that is imemediately useful in your design work, but all designers worth their salt should broaden their horizons and continuously search for things, both new and old to be able to use in their craft.

I have read this book (DOET) and its first version (POET) many times. It is a great book written by a person who observes in detail what is good and bad about a product's design. It is also encouraging to see that he is always taking the user's side. If you are in the design or are creating products, this is a must read.

There are three reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5.
First is that the products used to explain the are outdated. Many products mentioned have not existed for a while, so the examples are kind of hard to follow.
Second, even for these old products, the quality of the pictures used is pretty bad and difficult to read. Perhaps this is a simpler upgrade than the first one.
Finally, the author leaves some concepts at an abstract level. Whenever, I have given this book to my colleagues who design our software, they have not been able to finish it. Perhaps, this is because the author was a professor when he wrote it (and possibly still is). In this sense, I find it a more british book than an american book.

Beware, once you read the book, your style of evaluating products will change.

I once read somewhere that Steve Jobs got mad at his people when connecting an ear phone piece to the iPad did not produce the appropriate noise (feedback, one of the design principles listed in this book). I revisited this book a few months after reading the above. Then I noticed that Mr. Norman was a VP of design at Apple. Wonder if this means some of the Apple products pass the 6 or so design principles listed in this book.

Norman's work is THE book to start reading if you are 1) developing ANY kind of technology (e.g., web page, software program, etc.), or 2) beginning any tangible product design.
The book is easy reading, contains some key design concepts and is fun. It is not for artists or graphic designers. And for those who think that it is "rudimentary", just look at the products being designed today: car stereo buttons that you cannot reach, drink holders on car doors (don't slam that door), and VCRs that people cannot program.
This is the kind of book that you should hand out to everyone in your IT department for the Holidays.

This book is used in our Computer Science graduate class for "user interface and HCI". I think it is very good reading material for graduate level course. This book is very useful to understand the principle and practice of a good design, as well as dozens of examples of "bad" design.
However, I may think it is a little bit out of date. Published in 1988, a lot of things has changed in these 10 years.

This book, while dated, attracted my attention as a primer for the world of human-machine interactions. It covers well some common mistakes made by designers, and offers different ways of thinking (and procedures) crafted to help those building interfaces (physical or electronic) improve the experience of th end user.
I'd love to see this book brought back to life in an updated, modern form; even so, the content within is highly relevant to today's computer-driven world. This, and many like it, should be required reading for anyone designing something that another human will be required to use.

I read this book because I saw the author on TechTV and because I thought it sounded interesting. Please excuse the colloquial form of this review because I feel it gives the most insight about the book! I started reading this book and found it quite interesting. Although some topics were a little "over my head" so to speak I think I am able to convey the general nature of the book. It talks about different aspects that are critical to good usability in design. It often used bad examples of design to show how they could have been created better. In its thorough explanation of the spatial relation of objects to their buttons I found it interesting that light switches could be arranged so that there wouldn't be a mystery as to what light they turned on. It also talked about how usability is often given up to other details such as manufacturability and aesthetics. It is a comprehensive resource for information regarding the design of products or systems that are easy to use. The pictures are somewhat outdated as mentioned in an other review. Also color pictures would have been nice although they drive publication costs to a higher price. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the inner workings of products and the philosophy behind the usability of these products!
-9th Grade Student (2002)-

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.

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.

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.

This is actually a really bizarre book, in that it is as much an autobiography of Dr Norman's experiences in his own home as it is about design. Dr Norman is like the Charlotte Bronte of engineering -- although appaerently trapped in his own little world, he manages to discover universal truths that are relevant way beyond it.
Don't be confused: this is a rather tiresome book to read, as Dr Norman evaluates the design and usability of taps, light-switches, telephones and door handles (lots of door handles), but in a cosmic sense, worthwhile.
In short: I am glad to have read it, even though the reading was pretty dull.

I wish i had read this book earlier in my life as it helped me to understand the fundamental reasoning behind the working of most things around me from the physical one to the virtual ones(software). I wish everyone in Nigeria could this book regardless of their profession. Thanks a lot Don Norman.

I really enjoyed this book! It taught me to critically look at the functional design of things (including software) and critically evaluate their effectiveness and flaws. You won't look at the world the same way after you have read this book.

A supposely much heralded book filled with various reviews of The Design Encounters of Doctor Norman on his Fabulous Trip to England. In other words, if you'd like some nice design theories subsumed by a psychologist's frequent travel references, then this is book for you. In all honesty, Dr. Norman had some nice ideas, but listening to him drone on about his trip to Cambridge was tiring.

great for artists, designers, programmers, architects, actually pretty much anyone who has an interest in they way things work, creative process, and design.
This challenges the notion of lazy design, and goes against the issue of designing things the same way becuase that's the way it's always been done. Rewinds the design process and starts over. Shows design flubs and goes through the thought process and the intentions behind them. VERY interesting book, love the photographs and diagrams.

As a designer of e-commerce systems, I constantly face the challenge of designing easy-to-use solutions. Until I read this book, I never understood how people inherently understand how to use something. I will be able to instantly apply the knowledge in this book to my work. Reviewers who criticize the book for being to simplistic, dated, or not involving technology are missing the point. It doesn't matter whether a design is for something physical or a computer interface. The point is that a user should be able to figure out how to use a new item with minimal instruction. This book explains how people figure things out, and how to incorporate design elements to lead users in the right direction and to help them to recover from slips/mistakes. Excellent book.

This is the most inspiring design book I've every read. I wish it was mandatory for all designers. Even a non-designer would appreciate the way this book can open your eyes to the design of all things around us, and realise the good and the bad, and even the how and why.
Too many designers sell out to "being different" without thinking of functionality and usability. This book helped me appreciate the beauty of the marriage of form and function, and it established the foundation of the way I approach my design.

This book is fun for anyone: regardless whether you are an interested usability novice or a full-featured cognitive psychologist.
It demonstrates the good and the bad in usability design, it shows potential solutions to everyday problems and tells many great stories about usability adventurues the author has experienced.
After reading this book, you will become 'aware' like never before. It opens your eyes to the disasterous usability problems that surround us and how to correct them (if you are developing a product).
You won't regret it if you buy this book; it's a classic in its genre.

I don't understand, do people think they are learning from this? 100 pages in and I learned nothing and after skimming the rest it's the same. He writes about common knowledge and common reason and add funny words and diagrams and then repeats it again and again with different diagrams and different words.

Either make it 100 pages or do something which shows expetise. I got a recurring feeling that anyone could write this book. Perhaps detailed studies about different segments of people and how they approach different situations. Or maybe how different ages of people interact with devices do they have any reacurring useful themes with these groups? You sure won't learn from this book.

A really good read on the topic of cognitive science as it applies to everyday things and their design. I only gave it 4 stars and not 5 as I thought it was a little repetitive. Don Norman uses his favourite example of badly designed doors just once too often!

It is true - you will never look at another door handle or tap(faucet)in the same light after reading this book.
The main problem I have is that this book itself is not particularly well designed!
For a start the title on the cover is in an odd font, in capitals, and with strange shadowing - together making in difficult to read. The text is poorly spaced on the pages. The sub-chapter headings are not indexed or numbered, but seem to follow an undefined order according to font size and placement on the page. Consequently it is difficult to follow the flow and structure of the ideas being presented. Large tracts of the text are in Italics, but it is not clear what this is supposed to signify. Footnotes on each page rather than at the end of the book would reduce the amount of flipping back and forth required of the reader.
The photographs seem to be taken by an amateur. They are rather murky and lack detail, and are not helped by the almost newsprint-quality paper used in the book. Sometimes (in the case of photograph 6.6) it is impossible to even make out the feature being discussed in the caption. In almost every case, lengthy captions are required to explain the accompanying diagram. Surely a principle of good design is that illustrations should need no explanation.
Don't get me wrong, this is an interesting and amusing book that is still worth reading... it is just a shame the author did not apply some of more of his design standards to the book itself.

This book is important for two reasons: (a) it makes you realize that software design is not much different than any other kind of design, and (b) when you find it difficult to operate some device, it's really the designer's fault -- not yours!
The same ideas that have been used for years now in the design of simple things (e.g. doors), to complex stuff (e.g. nuclear reactor control panels) or even more complex stuff (VCRs :), can be applied to User Interface design. Even the design of a good internal interface (API) shares many properties with the design of successful everyday objects: it should have a clear purpose, it should be obvious to use, difficult to abuse, indicative of how it works, informative about its status -- in other words it should look and feel simple!
Carried away by features, aesthetics, technological innovations and the fact that from a designer's point of view everything look reasonable, we end up with difficult to use, error prone devices and tools. Design for usability should be a primary goal for all everyday objects, and that includes computer software.

I have really enjoyed reading this book, and I have been challenged by its message.

I have learnt ergonomics as part of a mechanical engineering degree and I can assure any of you that the basics presented there are well covered by this book. It has nothing on population data and such, but the essential foundation for good design is an understanding of the psychology of using things and performing tasks. Norman takes you through this psychology clearly and carefully.

This book deserves its modern classic status and will serve you well as a primer for user-centric design.

This book is a very good waterdown introduction to the issues most designers have to deal with when developing a project. All types of designers should read this book. It is very helpful because even though Mr. Norman often focuses on industrial products, the information he discusses is pivotal to the success of any product during its design stage. This applies to web designers as much as to industrial designers. I was a little disappointed to read reviews about this book from web designers saying that it was not necessarily helpful because it did not talk directly about web design. The reader should be more open and apply the concepts to their specific design field.
Now, there is a major flaw that I need to note about the book. This one deals with the practical issues behind a design, such as the pressure to show a unique interpretation that might win a prize and at the same time be a best seller with consumers. But the book does not deal with the issues behind desire -- the fact that people often buy things which are not usefull to them but are bought to fulfill their undefined desires. The book does not address this aspect of consumerism at all. All designers need to understand desire as much as possible. Mr. Norman merely mentioned it in the last two paragraphs of his final chapter. And it was in the passing; something which could be missed by someone who is not familiar with that topic in relation to design.
Be aware of that. I do recommend this book to be read. But it would be a very different book if he explored the fact that designers are not only pushed to develop something useful for the consumer, but are also pushed to create myth and desire which will keep the consumer coming back for more things which are not necessary to everyday life.
be aware of this, big, big, big boooooo boooo by Mr. Norman.

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.

After I read this book, the world is more painful to exam - look at the front door in our company, every one is trying to pull it to get out while it's a push door. The problem is the design of the small handle on the door... Look at the bathroom toilet paper dispenser, I bet it wasted a lot of paper because the cut is not in a right direction... While criticize other's design is easier, you become more sensitive about your own design.

If you design anything you will want to read this book. Even if you don't design what physically appears to a persons eye you want to read this. It is an amazing book which really changes your view of everything. After you read the first chapter of this book you'll start viewing the world differently. You'll start questioning why your VCR is like so, or why your DVD player is not like you think it should be. It is a fun book to read and a worthy one.

This book provides a useful foray into the basics of UI design. Dr. Norman articulates his points well and provides useful examples, but the general or major theme of the book is lost in the book's layout.
It is ironic that the 'design' of the book should be its greatest weakness. The text can be difficult to follow, the footnotes are a distraction, and the 'interface' is useless. Several times, I found myself disoriented while reading; uncertain where I was in the logical flow of his argument.
Still, it was worth the time to read.

have you ever tried to operate a familiar thing (e.g. a TV, or a stove) and could not figure out how it works? Or have you tried something new (e.g Rubik's cube) and understood right away how this thing works? So, do not blame yourself for the first one - it is just poor design. And do not prise yourself for the second - it was just an elegant one. So, if you are involved into designer or architecture - read this book and do not find yourself in situation that things you conceive are unusable.

Norman does an excellent job of showing the reader that interface design is not simple a matter of putting a handle or some buttons on something. His in depth analysis of not only which interfaces are good or bad but why is an interesting and educational read for anyone who must create objects, devices, or interfaces that a person will interact with. The language is easy to understand and not heavily technical but still remains interesting. His examples are not specific to computer interfaces but to many different kinds of devices - telephones, light switches, etc. An excellent book for readers of any level - student or teacher, from junior high on up.

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.

If you're like me - getting in or out of a building poses a conundrum beyond exasperation - for when it comes to doors, I never know where to push, or if I'm to pull or just what to do...admittedly this can be true even with signage (laugh). I laughed out loud as I read Norman's discussion of design - the good and bad of it.

This is a must read for those interested in design, human action and decision making, root cause analysis, and user centered design.

Note: Review based on earlier edition.

The book itself is incredibly helpful as a reminder of what is actually important in design work. It's ironically maddening that the audiobook keeps referencing "diagrams," doesn't explain them, and makes points based on them. How is that not an exact example of what the author is talking about in the book itself.

This book transformed my interaction with technology. Instead of blaming myself for being stupid, I started to point the finger of blame at designers. Before I read it I was passive in the face of bad design, now I fight back.
The book is not intended to be comprehensive, but, if you read it as it was intended, you will pick up a philosophy of good design. Every day I interact with a computer or a new piece of software I wish its designers had been force fed this book before being let lose on the real world.

If you've ever wondered why you notice when the things you use make your life difficult (and why you don't notice the things that are well designed at all), read this book. You'll learn some seemingly obvious yet clever ways of seeing how people interact with objects in their environment that will give you insight into developing easy-to-use interfaces. Clear, specific advice and brilliant observations combine to make an excellent book.

The Design of Everyday Things is the ultimate vehicle for translating usability design issues into everyday experiences. Once reading this book, one is no longer able to ignore the ergonomic, conceptual, and structural design flaws of everything from doors to complex information system interfaces. This book is clear and concise case-based information on how to recognize, diagnose, and design for usability in every arena. To the ever growing population of Information Systems and Web developers: you NEED this book for its insight on the human interaction experience; don't just develop an interface because you can- create a user-based system through the instruction of Don Norman's principles outlined in this book. Don Norman is a god!

I found this book to be a major disappointment. The author does have a collection of anecdotes about poorly designed items he's encountered but the constant whining gets tiresome very quickly. He then promised to offer some insights into how to get the design process right but never quite managed. The best he could come up with was these four bullet points:

* make it easy to see what's possible

* make it easy to see what's not possible

* make it easy to see what happened

* make the mapping between action and effect obvious

Even if you do find those points insightful, you'll find that beyond examples of when those points are violated, there is precious little useful advice on how to achieve these things.

The physical book itself was hardly a model of good design. The margins were far too narrow with some headings disappearing completely into the binding area and random paragraphs were set in italics for no apparent reason.

The books makes some interesting points and is well worth reading. However, the presentation seems to me rather too enthusiastic. I feel a more considered approach may have been better for the subject. The content is also rather dated now. Many of the pictures seem poor quality and not always very helpful.

I have one specific criticism and this causes me to wonder about the relevance of some of the other points made in the book. A picture of a sound mixing desk is shown as an example of a poorly designed product. Actually all the mixing desks I have come across have been quite well-designed for their purpose. If he considers mixing desks so bad a design, perhaps the author should be challenged to come up with a better one.

In summary, this is an interesting book, but not the great book the hype would have you believe.

I encountered this text as an Undergrad CompSci major. I don't use as a reference text, but it certainly changed how I view the world. It contains very important ideas for designers of any sort. Things like why you should not accept door handles that must be labeled "Push" or "Pull". And why you should not accept light switches that are confusing as to what lights they operate. If more people would follow some of Norman's priciples, the world would be an easier place to get around in.

Somebody once told me in regards to this book, "when you finish reading it, pass it on". They were absolutely correct. I'm buying a second copy just so I can have one on hand, but I honestly feel this a text everybody should read, and then give to a friend to do the same.

I don't know all the types of people who would benefit from reading this book, but I have it on my [short] list of "must reads" for game designers. I imagine that anyone who creates things that other people are supposed to use would learn something from this book that would be beneficial.

The author presents principles of design that focus on usability. My only gripe, which is not enough of an issue to warrant less than 5 stars, is that some of the examples the author uses are old and almost outdated.

Book itself is a wonderful read. But really need better formating in Kindle. Currently all the figures and captions are mixed with text. Font changes randomly. Readers should go with paper version instead.

If you are interested in the field of design or are currently within it, this is the book to read. Donald Norman's information readily applies to all different types of design: software, hardware, industrial, and more. I am a software designer (user interface design and usability predominantly) and Norman's work has really formed the building blocks of the way I do my job. Norman's explanation of conceptual models alone is worth the price of this book.
Before going anywhere else and reading any specific design books (such as Alan Cooper for software...great book too), read this book.

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.

This book is a must read for everybody and anybody who wants to get into the design end of things.
Should even be a mandatory read for most Product Managers!
It has definitely openned up my mind and gave me very good pointers.

A fun book that might open your eyes to things usually taken for granted. My copy of the book was actually bound with the spine on the opposite side of the book which was a bit awkward but was a lesson in the spirit of the book. (I have never seen another copy bound the same way, so it might have been an accident.) I return to the book whenever I think I am stuck in habitual thinking about objects and processes.

I'll make this quick. Even though this book was read for a college class, I actually enjoyed reading it. The examples were straight out of everyday life, as promised, and they were very interesting to learn about. This is a book that truly makes one think and changes one's perspective on the world.

This book is a must if you are dealing with any aspect of interface design. This book explains what causes people to react to well designed artifacts and shun poorly designed artifacts, while keeping the case specifics of technology to a minimum. This knowledge is directly transferable to the computer realm where it can be applied to interface design. Allowing the designer to create interfaces which are usable. What I like most about this book is it explains the "WHY" while leaving the implementation details to the reader.

Though a bit out of date (not much in the way of cell phones, etc.) this book is thought-provoking, and provided us with some conversation starters. I believe there is also a newer version that deals with updated technology.

If you are interested in the field of design or are currently within it, this is the book to read. Donald Norman's information readily applies to all different types of design: software, hardware, industrial, and more. I am a software designer (user interface design and usability predominantly) and Norman's work has really formed the building blocks of the way I do my job. Norman's explanation of conceptual models alone is worth the price of this book.
Before going anywhere else and reading any specific design books (such as Alan Cooper for software...great book too), read this book.

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.

This book is a must read for everybody and anybody who wants to get into the design end of things.
Should even be a mandatory read for most Product Managers!
It has definitely openned up my mind and gave me very good pointers.

A fun book that might open your eyes to things usually taken for granted. My copy of the book was actually bound with the spine on the opposite side of the book which was a bit awkward but was a lesson in the spirit of the book. (I have never seen another copy bound the same way, so it might have been an accident.) I return to the book whenever I think I am stuck in habitual thinking about objects and processes.

I'll make this quick. Even though this book was read for a college class, I actually enjoyed reading it. The examples were straight out of everyday life, as promised, and they were very interesting to learn about. This is a book that truly makes one think and changes one's perspective on the world.

This book is a must if you are dealing with any aspect of interface design. This book explains what causes people to react to well designed artifacts and shun poorly designed artifacts, while keeping the case specifics of technology to a minimum. This knowledge is directly transferable to the computer realm where it can be applied to interface design. Allowing the designer to create interfaces which are usable. What I like most about this book is it explains the "WHY" while leaving the implementation details to the reader.

Though a bit out of date (not much in the way of cell phones, etc.) this book is thought-provoking, and provided us with some conversation starters. I believe there is also a newer version that deals with updated technology.

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.

Plain and simple, this book gets you in the mindset of what design is really for... other people. To the untrained eye, the book may seem a bit dry. But it's focus on the design of various objects shows a view of design not thought about by the average person. If you're looking for a different way of thinking, this books a must read.

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.

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.

I understand this book used to be titled "The Pyschology of...", and that would be a more accurate title. Overall it's fairly interesting but rather dated, and would be of more use to a product designer than a web person like myself. Still, definitly worth a look if you've got a spare minute.

Every time I pull a "push" door I think of Donald -- because of this book. This is the definative Don Norman book. If you are starting to read about this cognitive science/ user design / interface field. This is the place to start. I love all of Don's writings. But this is still the best.
I just ordered the (much awaited) "The Invisible Computer...". I am sure that it will be a quick read -- as this one was. He gets to the point and makes it fun to read the whole book quickly.
This is a fun read!

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.

I read this book while starting on a career in computing. Since then I have heard many people complaing about "dumb users" and the like - every time, I was reminded of this book. Norman illustrates how crucial design is to the usability of everyday things. And most importantly, empowers US to stop blaming OURSELVES when things go wrong. Even if the content is dated, the message is ageless.

First few chapters are a must-read for all interaction designers.
Later chapters about user-centered design might be a bit outdated (given how long it has been written.)
But that won't prevent me from giving it 5 stars.

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.

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.

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.

Dr. Norman is an incredibly charismatic individual. I was fortunate to have him as a lecturer in my Cognitive Engineering course at University of California, San Diego. He captured my attention and released my imagination.
The Design of Everyday Things is a very informative and entertaining reading. I have read it twice! Buy it! Enjoy it! Learn from it!

While not completely un-readable, don't expect any "a-ha!" moments from this book. When analyzed enough, nothing makes sense. Why am I typing this review on a keyboard with my fingers instead of on a hovercard with my nose? The first few pages are interesting, then the book gets just plain tiring.

This book breaks through the ergonomics enlightment barrier. There is now NO excuse for overtly anti-user design. Except that the ideas appear so obvious after reading that cynics will continue to trivialise usability as cosmetic. Essential reading for Designers, Programmers, Engineers, Architects and a lot more besides.

This book will make you look at everything you use on a daily basis from a new perspective. It should be required reading for anyone who designs any item used by humans. His discussion of the psychology behind why things are designed the way they are changed the way I use and purchase items.

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.

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 gave up about halfway through and just about threw it in the lake, but it was a library book. The endnotes were utterly unuseable. Half of the notes were very interesting digressions and the other half were citations, but I couldn't tell which was which until I had spent three minutes flipping pages. And yes, it took three minutes to find the proper endnote. Every chapter's notes are numbered beginning with 1, so I frequently ended up on the right note number, but the wrong chapter. Even if you remember which chapter you were on by the time you flip back to the notes section, you can't always tell which chapter the notes are for; each chapters-worth of notes is labeled only on the first page, and they tend to be several pages long. Until the good Dr. Norman sees fit to reissue the book in a readable format, don't waste your time.

The Design of Everyday Things is the story of design flaws in things that do not exist today, so they are not everyday things. A book must be written for the Design of Everyday Books. This book could be summarized in 2 pages of essence, yet it burdens us with a poor design and verbose context.

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.

This book should be a pre-requisite for all entering students in industrial design or at least a textbook for a class in human factors/ergonomics. That it is so enjoyable to read for non-designers is a plus.

Great ideas from an iconoclastic psychologist. Unfortunately, rendered in a design that is more than unusable--it is hostile to the reader. The book is almost a parody of the ideas it attempts to communicate. I'd blame the editor, except that Dr. Norman should have known better himself.

I bought this book because it was on Coding Horror's recommended list.

This book is useless. There's nothing in here that any person that interacts with objects themselves doesn't already know.

They're *everyday* things. Also, the devices in this book are outdated. I'm not 100 years old so most of the stuff in here isn't interesting. The revolutionary graphical using interface has been out for decades now.

The ideas talked about are obvious.
Mapping is obvious. We map stuff naturally.
We know we forget stuff. We experience it ourselves.
We know about feedback. We experience it.
We have senses too. There's nothing in here we don't already know.

This book is chock full of his stream of thought. Very light on solutions.
This thing is full of obvious observations that has been overwritten.

It has NOTHING to do with psychology (Title was Psychology of Everyday Things). This is a personal diary filled with rants.
This book's author writes more than he thinks. This book should have been no more than 40 pages.

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.

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 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!

PLEASE FORWARD:
Dear Mr. Norman,
Judging from the fact that the store.com offered the two as a set, I bet they didn't know, either, that The Design of Everyday Things is the same book as The Psychology of Everyday Things.
When I first picked up the books, presents for me since I had asked my son to get them for me in the U.S., I noticed puzzling similarities. It was only when I read the preface to The Design that I realized the two were identical. The statement about the identities is on the cover of The Design, but not large enough to really catch the average buyers' eye.
Happy Redesigning. (...)

I take it from other people's reviews that this book is considered by some to be a classic in the design field. However, I found it unreadable and gave up after a little over a hundred pages. The book failed me on a number of levels, which is particularly surprising considering that the subject of the book is designing things that conveiently and elegantly meet the needs of the user.

Although I was a young adult when the book was first published in the late 1980's, the examples in the book (telphones, sewing machines, typewriters, film projectors, etc.) are so dated, the typesetting so badly done and the pictures of such poor quality, that I felt at times that I was looking at a book from the Eisenhower administration.

His points about good design are valid but are obvious and well known(in his defense, perhaps when he wrote the book they were novel). Devices like single serve coffee machines, ipods and blackberries have brought good design principles into the general consciousness.

He also spends very little time providing interesting examples of good and bad designs and how they came about and their consequences and instead spends too much time rambling. There's an Andy Rooney-ish quality to his musings that was usually annoying but occasionally quaint (his musings that in a decade there would be a good pocket sized computer device that would track his meetings and other information had me checking the book's copyright date). His grumpy complaints about having to remember phone numbers, phone card codes, zip codes and the codes for those new fangled ATM machines brought to my mind images of Homer Simpson's dad, not a man with cutting edge ideas on design.

By the time I gave up halfway through the book, I wasn't sure why the book had been written. Norman seems particularly obsessed with door handles and I just couldn't share his passion on the subject. I would have been more interested in important examples of design failure (e.g., if memory serves, the Audi 100 series' placement of the brake and accelerator pedals that resulted in "sudden acceleration" problems at the time he wrote this book) rather than an obsession with the layout of knobs and burners on stove tops.

I threw my copy in the trash.

I really looked forward to reading this book, but I found it to have too stiff and academic a tone, which hindered rather than helped reading it. You require a good amount of determination to finish this book. I ended up giving up and giving away the book to a friend, having learnt little.

A pretty annoyjng whiny book about industrial design. The seven stages of action: forming the goal, forming the intention, specifying the action, executing the action, perceiving the state of the world, interpreting the state of the world, evaluating the outcome. All these are done with every action done by humans.

I have a mechanical engineering degree, and I want to safeguard myself from the notion that the products I'm involved with now are designed only for mechanical functionality, rather than pleasing the client with useful items. This book was presented to me as the handbook for product development. I was hoping and expecting to learn about the engineering and design processes involved in creating industrial and consumer products. Simple insights from someone with the experience touted by the author should supersede the "design a better pepper grinder" project at the end of my machine design course in college, but I'm disappointed.

Instead, the author complains about many unsatisfactory products, most of which have met the short end of natural selection since the book was originally published. VCRs are gone, I have no desire to design typewriters, and I'm not predicting a "door revolution" which will vastly improve the field of door technology and the application of this technology to door designs. In an attempt to revitalize the book, he points out that these principles are valuable to the technology industry and web development in particular, but if there's an association, I'm yet to see it.

The author states early that he does not criticize things for which he has no better solution. Later in the book he makes complaints with the acknowledgement that he has no solution for many problems.

Since the author cannot comprehensively identify a thorough design process to ensure that poor designs don't survive development processes, I'd like to provide an alternative summary:

some things have good designs and some things have bad designs. If I like using them, they're good designs. Otherwise, they're bad designs.

Don Norman is the kind of smart, grandfatherly figure who has been allowed to reach the utmost of his personal limitations. If you see one of his cranky live appearances, you at once realize you've found someone whose self-regard is surpassed only by Edward Tufte. They're both curmudgeons of the first order who profess to know what is wrong with the design of objects and information. But with a quick glance at their books you can determine their actual worth. The most useful design lesson from this is the one he inadvertantly teaches: He previously published this book as The Psychology of Everday Things because he thought it was nifty that the initals spelled "P.O.E.T.." How that for a design rationale? Adding insult to injury he gave a later book the Oh-Come-On! title: "Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles." Aside from being a precious, dumb title, it's also an impossible read. On top of that, "Au-to-mo-biles?" This guy is old guard. This book dissappeared at some point in my travels and I didn't notice because it's advice is now so basic there's no need to refer to it again. I hope they eventually release this book on wax cylinder so I can listen to it on my Victrola.

I got the Kindle edition of this book.
Font is very hard to read and there is a lot of mangled words.
Images in the book are unusable due the poor quality (too grainy).
There are no navigational elements in this book. These are not essential but it would nice to have them. Especially for figures and footnotes.

I love reading books on Kindle but for this one I recommend a hard copy.

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.