Norman, Donald A. - The Design of Everyday Things

[oyceter]

I read this because of my growing interest in web usability and human-computer interaction. This is less on human-computer interaction and more on human-inanimate-object interaction, but that was cool.

Norman's general theory is that if the user is messing up, it's because something is wrong with the design. Either it's trying so hard to look good that it falls short on the usability side, or it just wasn't thought through enough during the design phase. He gives several interesting examples.

The book is a little dated now, particularly if like me, you're reading it as a background for web usability. So it wasn't applicable for that, but since I like the topic, I found it sort of fun. It's not really something I'd rec to anyone who wasn't interested in the topic though, as I suspect personal interest carried me through some not-so-sparkling prose.

Comments

[helen-keeble.livejournal.com]

Ah, my course's core textbook. :-)

I am amused that the book was originally published as The Philosophy of Everyday Things... but Norman changed the title for the reprint after the book was persistantly mis-shelved in bookstores/libraries. Useability design in action!

[oyceter]

Me too! I had fun with that in the preface.