The Design of Everyday Things

Most engineers are very biased toward logic and are ignorant of reality.

When they build things, they make sure that their product or service has a 100% logical and precise interface for users.

They build and design the way they think users “should” behave. But their bias makes them ignorant of how humans actually behave.

We are irrational creatures and particularly bad at being precise and accurate.

When a disaster happens as a result of someone using their products in an unpredicted way, they (and even us) conclude: the cause of the accident was a human error.

Well, Don Norman argues that the root cause is most likely poor design and not human error. Poor design comes from lack of understanding of human psychology and behavior.

This book teaches you the fundamental principles of design for building products and services that are used by humans.

Design principles are all about human psychology; How we make sense of the world around us and make decisions and take action.

I enjoyed it. Made a ton of notes.

This book is for anyone who is involved in the process of building products and services for humans.

Don’t skip it if you are involved.