Review: 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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