A good read! I think this book, along with The Design of Everyday Things, are fantastic readings about design thinking.

As I enjoyed The Design of Everyday Things and Living With Complexity, I decided to buy Don Norman's back Catalogue. This book is honestly bizarre compared to those two.

The model of considering the effect of an object's design on reactive, intellectual, and reflective levels and providing case studies is very useful, and the way it's written is in Norman's characteristic dry and amusing approach throughout.

However where I deducted stars is the last quarter of the book, where he discusses how machines will need emotions to help us interact with them better. I fully appreciate the conversation on AI was very different in 2003, but this book either needs to be updated and re-released or followed up because that part is painful to read as someone who works in the field. It reads as part speculative science fiction, part historical document twenty years on. The rest of the book is smarised in the epilogue, but the section on emotional machines isn't, making it feel like an unplanned afterthought. The meandering tangents of this section are so different to the pointed psychology and philosophy of design throughout the rest of the book.

Overall, I'd say this book is worth reading, But that chapters 6 and 7 should be taken with a grain of salt, or even skipped altogether.

bir ürünün tasarımının iyi ya da kötü olduğunu belirlemek için 3 farklı bakış açısına birden uygun olması üzerine bir premise’le yazılmış ve beklentilerimi fazlasıyla karşılayan bir kitap ortaya çıkmış. kitap boyunca visceral, behavioral ve reflective olmak üzere 3 farklı tasarım uyumluluğuna dikkat çekiliyor.

bu tasarımlardan yaklaşımlarından ilki bir ürünün dışarıdan görünümü; yani renk, şekil vb. fiziksel özellikleri. yazar bu özelliklerin kullanıcı tercihlerine etkisini araştırmalara dayandırarak da detaylandırıyor. hatta fiziksel olarak çekici bir ürünün kolay kullanıma sahip olduğuna dair kullanıcı görüşleri de bulunuyormuş. bunun kültürel bir görüş olmadığını japonya ve portekiz gibi iki farklı ülkedeki araştırmalardan da anlayabiliyoruz. insanlar için, ürünlerin görünüşlerine dayandırılan beğenilerin; tercihlerinde ne denli etkili olduğunu biliyoruz. siyah, kırmızı, pembe, mavi,… gibi renkleri düşünebiliriz mesela. bir çakmak satın alırken bile, aynı fonksiyonalitedeki yan yana duran çakmaklar arasından beğendiğimiz renge sahip olan satın alabiliyoruz.

ikinci olarak bahsedilen tasarım, yazarın önceki kitabı “gündelik şeylerin tasarımı”nda detaylı olarak bahsettiği fonksiyonalite ve kullanılabilirliğe yoğunlaşıyor. kullanıcı ve ürün arasındaki etkileşimin uygun şekilde dizayn edilmesinin önemini anlayabiliyoruz. hepimiz bir bilgisayar programının, uygulamasının yavaş çalışmasının veya hata vermesinin; insanları nasıl öfkelendirdiğine şahit olmuşuzdur, hatta buradaki öznenin kendisi olduğumuz durumlar da mevcut. yazar, feedback kavramının önemi ve her zaman tasarımlarda yer alması gerektiğini detaylı şekilde “gündelik şeylerin tasarımı”nda anlatmıştı. yine buradan örnekleyerek uygulamalardaki progress bar veya loader animasyonlarının neden bütün ürünlerde yer alması gerektiği, “computer rage”in panzehiri olarak sunuluyor; çünkü işlem sırasında hiçbir tepki vermeyen bir uygulama yerine, progress bar ile işlemin ne kadarının kaldığını gösteren bir grafik tercih sebebidir.

üçüncü olarak ise, bir ürünün veya o ürüne sahip olmanın yaratacağı imaj üzerine bir yaklaşım anlatılıyor. tabii ki mercedes gibi pahalı bir otomobil markası aklımıza gelebilir ilk olarak ve aslında yanlış da değil. ancak sadece aklımıza bu gelmemeli. denk fiyatlara sahip iki benzer kalitede ve fonksiyonalitede ürün arasındaki bir kıyaslamayı düşünelim mesela. bu iki ürün arasından birisi kadın haklarına destek veriyorsa ya da çevre dostuysa veya yardım kuruluşlarına her alınan ürün karşılığında bağışta bulunuyorsa, iki ürün arasından tercihiniz topluma faydalı ürün olur. imaj ile alakalı birkaç boyut bu şekilde ama daha fazlasını da düşünmek mümkün. bu ürünlere sahip olmak sizi farklı duygulardan yakalıyor. havalı görünmek, yardımseverliğin sağladığı gurur ya da farklı bir duygu olabilir.

bu kavramlar doğrultusunda hedefine odaklı ve başarılı bir kitap ortaya çıkmış ve tam kararında bir uzunlukta anlatılmış. neredeyse bir devam kitabı olmasına rağmen tek başına da çok değerli bir eser. don norman’ın tasarım ve yeni fikirler konusunda bir deha olduğunu da söylemek gerekir. kitabın 2003 yılında basılmış olması göz önüne alınırsa; sosyalleşme üzerinden verdiği örneklerle facebook, twitter, instagram gibi uygulamaların hayatımızdaki rolüne dair bize öngörülerini sunmuş olduğunun farkında da varabiliyoruz.

This book was interesting but disappointing.

The first half was a fascinating addendum to The Design of Everyday Things. This part of the book talked about the role of emotions in design and usability. Things that are more pleasurable to use are easier to use than something with the same basic design that is not a pleasure to use. The psychological basis for this claim is that when people are enjoying what they are using, they can take a more creative view at any problems they encounter during the interaction. Furthermore, when you enjoy using something, you may be more willing to forgive problems. Delightful design cannot rescue an unusable design, but all else being equal, the delightful design will seem easier to use and cause greater attachment.

Another reason that emotion is important in design is that users' relationships to objects are built on more than just the perceived usability and pleasure in using the items. Emotion is important because it taps into higher level human concerns such as image and status.

The second part of the book felt out of place. It discussed robots and why they need to have some equivalent of emotions. The discussion was interesting, but it did not seem to really fit with the description given by the title ("why we love (or hate) everyday things). It felt like the second part of the book was bolted on because the first part was not long enough to be a book on its own. Because it went so contrary to my expectations for the rest of the book, I just could not enjoy it, even though it may have been interesting on its own.

Overall, I would say that the first first of the book should be considered required reading if you have read The Design of Everyday Things. The second half you can take or leave depending on how interested you are in robots.

Don Norman is a giant in the space and offers insightful theory and speculation about the future.

The first half of the book is a fantastic sequel to his seminal, "Design of Everyday Things," while the second half is a bit incoherent - rambling, loose, and with a lack of evidence. Still, his reputation and crisp writing carries him to a strong end.

(2.5/5)

the first half of the book was really good and provided arguments for the book’s title. i really enjoyed chapter 4 about “fun & games”: norman discusses how and why some design pieces can amuse and ultimately seduce us, pushing us to keep them around and still use them cause “they’re fun”.

the second half of the book is about robots (?) and it feels misplaced and outdated if you consider how fast the tech industry moves and the fact that this book is from 2005.

This book expands on Norman's The Design of Everyday Things by exploring how people interact with things when human emotions are taken into account. While the previous book focused on usability based on physical human limitations and logical design, this book delves into how design can affect both the act of the interaction and the quality of the emotional bond with objects (and computer software) through that interaction.

This is not a How-To design book with step-by-step instructions; it explores the nature of the relationships that people form with objects, and it does this by investigating Why and How people form these bonds. It provides suggestions on how to nurture the good emotions and how to avoid bad ones in order to improve on the design of a product, and ultimately, make people feel good about how to use products correctly and productively. This is the level at which designers and product developers need to apply their craft at, to create the iPod vs a regular personal music player.

Coming from the game and software development perspective, I would highly recommend this book to game designers as a fundamental text, and also to tools designers to take content creation tools design to a new level. Imagine if people love using your software so much they become attached to it.

An elegant framework for understanding the levels on which design affects us. Great balance between the philosophy of design, and the practicalities of it. A completely unexpected benefit of the book was its hindsight prescience. Written in 2004 it completely nailed: the prospect of an iPhone, with its emotionally charged design and marketing; the primacy of chat at the killer app; the prospect of driverless cars; the ceaseless march towards AI, and the emotionality that it will be laden with to enhance adoption. The predictions that still seem eyebrow raising take on more weight in light of the accurate track record.

On the downside, I expected more practical examples and analyses of actual products.

Книга дуже сподобалась, читаючи, дізналась про багато глибоких та цікавх речей.

Автор багато розповідає про три аспекти сприйняття дизайну, а також, афект та пізнання. Є відсилки на псхологію та роботу мозку.

Український переклад досить хороший, а друковане видання досить якісне.

I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but this is a book you can aptly judge. The cover depicts a juicer that is mechanical and feminine at the same time. It has sharp edges beautifully paired with delicate, sensual curves. It is supposedly not meant for juicing actual fruit, but it is certainly a conversation starter.

This book was full of great anecdotes about the random stuff we have that we are attached to for no apparent reason. I have a hand mixer in my house that used to be white but has faded to a off yellow due to age. It works better than anything else and is a conversation starter because of the now defunct Montgomery Ward logo on the side. My collection of books are a testament to my identity, and our coffee table books show the world our varied interests.

I enjoyed the book in the first half when it was about aspects of design. However, the later half about AI and robots seemed fade in and out. it did not hold my interest as much as I would have liked. If they had stuck to the aspects of what makes the Mini or Macbook Pro or titled teapots desirable, I would have enjoyed it more than a deviation in the later half of the story.

I was very hyped, as a designer myself, to analyze the WHY on how we love - things -. How we interact with things, how we think about them, how they change us or we change the world with them. Every object was created by a human (I mean, Imagine that! We forget that every day) and some - thought through very well. In a world of consumerism and maximalism, where I call myself a THINGS lover - I really needed this book. It has great quotes, great research and some interesting thoughts. Personally, I've read the robot chapter after AI started showing up (chat gpt, midjourney and so on), but the chapter proved still accurate. In general, I was not interested in the robot part too much, more in the "inanimate" objects as a designer, so it could have been shorter, but never mind. 5 stars all the way through.

The book was a bit dry and repetitive. Some interesting insights, but would rather have seen more real-world examples and applications. It was a bit too much on the psychology of everything, which can get dull after a while.