Saturday, March 23, 2019

Review: The Design of Everyday Things

The Design of Everyday Things The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design: a simple lock should not require instructions."

As I read this book, I kept thinking that my husband wrote the words. I could hear his voice loud and clear on every page. Why is this thing so complicated? Great, another gadget, another solution in search of a problem! Mr. Norman is the voice of every adult who has ever struggled with an Ikea DIY product, and every adult who has been mystified by a jumbled remote control. “Rule of thumb: if you think something is clever and sophisticated beware-it is probably self-indulgence.” Amen to that, Mr. Norman.

 This book was originally published in 1988 under the title, The Psychology of Everyday Things. I read the 2013 updated version, but it wasn't very different from the original, I am told. This book is required reading in many businesses, especially those driven by innovative design. Two of my kids, each working in very different industries, were asked by their employers to read this book. It has been and will continue to be a vital primer to all who make things for other people to use, whether these things are tangible or exist only on a cloud-propped screen.

Norman spends lots of time describing how we (all of humanity, actually) interact with products and attempt to understand them. When someone starts to design something you will use - a phone, a car, a blender, a lamp - this designer must communicate with the ordinary user's mind and the kinds of assumptions that mind will make when it sets out to use this product. Not as easy as it sounds, apparently. Yet, counterintuitively, we mostly notice the things which are poorly designed. Why? Well, if we start to use a new product and do not experience a single hitch, we don't think much about it. It merges seamlessly with us as we use it - end of story.

The examples of thoughtless design are very amusing. There's no hold button on this telephone! Well, there is but strangely you must hit *458 to engage the "hold". What? Why *458? Why not *999 or *15 or whatever? Why have it so random and who's going to remember this? The point, of course, is that if something cannot be seen by the user (like electronic/digital codes) they had better make sense, if you want a happy user, that is.

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this book, but I knew it to be a classic in many disciplines, not just design. I'm so glad I read it. It is well-organized, it steers clear of curmudgeon-itis with its friendly, cheerful delivery, and it really got me thinking more about the people who decide where that button should be. Now, when I use something and it works, I feel like the group that designed it has successfully communicated with me across ages and probably continents.

A fun and informative book - a book for everyone!


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Sunday, March 17, 2019

Review: The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game

The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game The Fighter's Mind: Inside the Mental Game by Sam Sheridan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When you fight skin-to-skin with another human being you have got some special kind of brave going on. This book honors that brave. There is nothing quite like it.

True, to live is to fight. In one way or another. You don’t need to be in a physical cage – we all have our cages and we all have our demons. But, it is an elite group of warriors who do this kind of fighting. Sam Sheridan might not have written this for the grey-haired, 60-something shrimps out there like me, but dang-it, I really loved this book. He crawls into the headspace of the combatants, where so many raw and relatable truths reside, and he shows us what it’s like…for them. How to win, how to lose, how to train, how to live. You don’t even have to be an athlete to appreciate this book. I did an audio-version and I actually pulled over a few times while driving from NJ to MA to jot down important ideas. My heart pounded with excitement as he described some of the blood baths.

How much of our daily lives are real? Not much. Mostly, it’s fake. What we read in the news is fake, what we watch on TV is fake, what we read on FB, Twitter and IG …all drenched in fake. But, when two men (or women) are facing off in a cage or a ring or a pad, it is real. Someone is gonna get choked or pinned or KO’d. Someone is gonna win and someone is gonna lose. That’s real. Sam Sheridan has delivered 100% real. And, it is like some kind of a wonderful antidote to the fake soup we’ve got to swim around in every day.

I did karate for 15 years, a very very long time ago. Before it was popular. Before there was protective equipment. Before there were a lot of rules. Back when you could easily get a broken jaw if you merely tried to block a punch coming from a guy with 6” and 80 pounds on you. No. As a shrimp without protective padding you had to also get the hell out of the way. I loved it, despite the bruises and fractures. Many people understand the feeling in the thrill of combat; Sheridan has given that feeling a clear voice and a reason, too. And the insights he offers, from the personal, troubled family histories to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of Flow – all superbly detailed. The man can really write.

The stories of the grit in these fighters, who were getting respect in life quite literally through their blood, sweat and tears will fill you with a spirit to get up and do. Try harder. As a mother of four - three of them young men who can fight and do fight and who aren’t afraid to shed their own blood - I have high praise for a book which celebrates and validates man as warrior. Our men need more books like this.

As a mom of men and as a woman who sparred competitively when much, much younger, I give this book high praises all around. And, I agree with Sam. The world is made of fire.


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Friday, March 1, 2019

Review: The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Oh, why did I wait so long to read this book? What a wonderful, sad, heart-warming, roller coaster of a story it is – and made exquisitely magical through the voice of Enzo.

Confession first – I am not really an animal person. Other than Watership Down, and books I use to read to my kids when they were all younger, I’m not sure I’ve ever chosen to read a book (for my own personal enrichment) which centered on an animal. This book has switched on a light for me. Every dog I look at now …. I really see. And, I really regard. So, that’s huge. But, actually, this isn’t a book about dogs. It is a book about life.

“My soul has learned what it came to learn, and all the other things are just things. We can't have everything we want. Sometimes, we simply have to believe.”

There is something so distinctively charming about a dog who wants to talk but who cannot, but who still reveals immaculate wisdom and reason in his thoughts. His incapacity to become human sets him apart; he continually laments his own dog-ness. Like a mute guardian angel, he wants to do more. He wants to prevent suffering. He alone is a silent witness to so much inevitable pain and so much injustice.

“Such a simple concept, yet so true: that which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”

The reader hears Enzo’s astute observations page after page and the reader knows … knows that Enzo is not just Denny’s dog. Enzo is our own voice of reason – the one we silence when we are selfish and unwise or just plain ignorant.

“There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.

We are pummeled by the storms in Denny’s life, but Enzo makes us brave, as he helped to make Denny brave. Enzo will live in your heart long after you finish this book. He will give you strength for one more lap around the track; he will help you finish strong whatever race you are in.


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