Whenever programmers ask other programmers for book suggestions, there's always some smartass that says something like "The Art of War" because of blah blah blah about corporate politics. Hoo boy you're clever, you suggested a non-programming book, way to not play by the rules. You really march to the beat of your own drum there, slick.

Similarly, I constantly see "The Design of Everyday Things" suggested in these kinds of conversations. I think it's supposed to give engineers great insights into design and how humans interact with objects around them. This is supposed to change our outlook for the software we build for people.

Well, I don't think it did that at all. Really, the only thing to take away in that regard is "think about how people use your software". In other words, I think a great many UX-centered books are vastly superior in this regard.

That's not to say this book is bad. In fact, I imagine there are people reading my review right now thinking "who gives a shit that this guy is a software engineer?" Indeed, this book is great. Very enjoyable, and very informative. It made me think about every day objects I've never even given a second thought to. There's an entire section on sink faucets that blew my mind. But ultimately, the book is really about exactly what the title says it is, the design of everyday things and objects. There's some hinting at a greater, broader meaning than this, but it never comes to much.

Definitely a great read, worth it for sure, but don't buy into the "everyone who makes software should read this book" hype.

Notes to self:
Affordances as means of communication.
Risk homeostasis. Reverse risk compensation. (compensatory mechanisms)
Swarms. Predictive/interactive behaviour.
Cross-feedback.

There are very important user experience and design concepts here... as they pertain to everyday things. He isn't even talking about software apps and websites...this was published in 1988 so those weren't even really on the forefront of the mind when it came to design back then...

This is a textbook of design. For all the snazzy UIs we see, all of it bases in a few basic psychological reasons. The book explained the concepts beautifully. The language is a bit uninteresting and it becomes a hang at points but that’s what textbooks are, I suppose.

Must read for anyone who’s working in development of products or design. All aspects of the industry are touched upon and it’s a great primer to refer back to in times of doubt as well.

It took me roughly a year to go through this one. Took quarterly breaks. Read a chapter at a time and let the lessons be absorbed in daily life.

İsminin de onerdigi gibi bu kitap gunluk hayatimizda yer alan nesnelerin tasarimlarinin ne gibi ozelliklere sahip oldugu ve olmasi gerektigi uzerine harika bir kaynak. Hani kimi kitaplar ya da fimler icin "artik hayata ayni gozlerle bakmayacaksiniz" denir ya. Bu kitap da tam oyle. Hem de kelimenin birinci anlamiyla. Yani nesnelerin tasarimi daha ilgi cekici gelmeye basliyor. Tabi bir kitapla her sey degismez ama bakis asinizin zenginlesecegi kesin.

Tasarim, kullanilabilirlik, kullanici deneyimi gibi kavramlar is ya da ozel sebeplerle ilginizi cekiyorsa bu kitabi okumanizi siddetle oneririm.

Read it back in 2018. Opened my eyes towards value of user centered research. Since I'm now reading Invisible Women, I realise how design completely eliminates women from the picture and why disaggregated data is paramount for a good design centered product.

And yes, this is a very unfair review of the book, so would it help if I say this is a kick-ass read?

Dużo pożytecznych informacji o popełnianiu błędów. Książka nie tylko dla projektantek. Przywraca wiarę w ludzi.

There is not much you can learn from the book unless you are completely new to design. And even then you probably learn more just by searching for examples of poor vs. excellent design on the Internet and reading the commentary.

Too general to be valuable. Too many sentences like this: "Each discipline has a different perspective of the relative importance of the many factors that make up a product."

Read for class, so no rating.

This a required read for anyone who wants to design things for humans to use, but it was more like a textbook than I hoped when I picked it up. Lots of design vocabulary and lots of fairly common-sense principles. Don Norman is definitely one of the early design thinkers and this is where he talks about it all.

Big takeaways:
Signifiers and feedback are key in designing something. The user needs to be able to quickly understand what it can do (affordances) and get immediate and appropriate feedback when they do something.

Human Centered Design Process: all about observing to understand the problem, ideating solutions, rapid prototyping and testing. You should test with small groups at first so that you have lots of opportunity to refine and iterate. I especially liked the part about using the Wizard of Oz technique: manually handling the backend yourself and letting the user think you are automating it. I think that's often the best way to test whether something will gain traction. Doesn't work for everything, but sometimes it's very useful.

When there's something wrong, humans aren't using things wrong, designers are designing poorly.

I highly recommend this book!! It's incredibly thought-provoking and made me think about how our modern world and technologies are poorly designed in some aspects but can be improved. It's a little early to call it, but this might be one of my top books of the year.