The Design of Everyday Things (1988)

By Donald A. Norman

The Design of Everyday Things is written by Donald Arthur Norman. It was first published by Basic Books in 1988.

About the Author

Donald Norman, a cognitive psychologist whose work revolves largely around user-centered design, has been helmed by Business Week as on of “the world's most influential designers". He has made great contributions to the area human centered design, and has worked at places like Apple Computer and Hewlett-Packard. He has also taught at various universities worldwide.

Summary

The Design of Everyday Things (originally published as The Psychology Of Everyday Things) uses psychology to explain the good and bad design in everyday objects. It also suggests design solutions and principles to address the unintentional problems created with bad design.

Norman addresses, in chapter one, the mystery of hard-to-use doors. Something as simple as a door that is poorly designed, can confuse and frustrate users. Here he introduces the term “affordances” as a means to indicate whether you push or pull on a door, for example a horizontal bar affords (is for) pushing against as it is just natural to do so. He suggests making buttons and switches more visible (1 button for more function, reduce hidden functions) and natural mapping between controls and their functions that leave no room for ambiguity. He stresses the principle of feedback to help users know that a result is accomplished. One example is the beeps we hear when we dial the telephone, which helps us to know that we have successfully dialed the number on our phones.

Norman also explains how our lives are filled with misconceptions. As humans we tend to make causal inferences. When B occurs after A, and C after B, we tend to rationalize it as A having caused B, which in turn caused C to occur, even if it were just coincidental. It is interesting to note too that we tend to blame our misfortunate on our environment, but when it comes to other people, we tend to blame their personalities instead. Norman cautions us to not confuse and assign blame to ourselves when it may actually be the fault of a bad design. If a design has to be labeled, then it may not be working as well as it should. Here he suggests using the seven stages of action as design aids to help create more user-friendly design.

Constraints also limit and control how we use objects. If something were designed to only work in one way, in the way that it should, this cuts down user failure (and frustration) to zero. For example, by mapping out light switches to the floor plan of the room and incorporating that into the design of the switch, we can eliminate the annoying event where we flip switches on and off in attempt to figure out which switches work certain lights.

Norman ends the book with suggestions and ideas to guide the design of everyday things such as simplifying task structures, providing mental aids/labels, utilizing natural mappings, designing constraints and when all else fails, standardizing systems.

The book is a light read and balanced out with images and diagrams that help support the text. I feel that a complete beginner to psychology can pick up this book and easily understand and relate to the concepts that Norman espouses, and not feel intimidated by excessive jargon. The many case studies and funny anecdotes mentioned also help illustrate his points clearly.

The only drawback may be that the case studies may seem dated, although some may still apply in this day and age, like confusing doors. I feel that perhaps a newer edition could include updated cases studies such as bad design found in websites and newer technology like smartphones and applications.

Although this book was published 24 years ago, I feel it still has much relevance to the design industry today. From designing a chair, to a poster layout or even game level design, by understanding how people use objects, designers can avoid common or unintentional design errors that may hinder the use of flow of the product.

I can see how the understanding of user centered design will help greatly in the creation of graphic user interfaces in games. Paying attention to feedback, button placement (visibility) and the principle of natural mapping, for example, can ensure and even greatly enhance playability and user experience. Imagine hunting through a game to find the pause button, or having to click through 20 menus to gain access to a certain inventory. That would most certainly turn off players from continuing a game.

Perhaps in this time and age, much of bad design may have already been addressed, however there is and will continue to be lapses which result in bad design. Reading The Design of Everyday Things helps to make us more aware of our shortcomings, which in turn helps us in making informed decisions to create better products.

I would highly recommend The Design of Everyday Things to designers and people interested in the  psychology and science of user design.

(Done for a class book report! )