The Design of Everyday Things Buchzusammenfassung - das Wichtigste aus The Design of Everyday Things

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Zusammenfassung von The Design of Everyday Things

Name: The Design of Everyday Things
Rating: 4.4 (274 reviews)
Author: Donald A. Norman

Donald A. Norman

The cognitive psychology of good design

4.4 (274 Bewertungen)

17 Min.

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The Design of Everyday Things
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What’s in it for me? Learn the secrets behind good design.

Have you ever been overwhelmed by a simple device like a remote control? Or felt ashamed in public after not being able to open a glass door – after three attempts? Push, pull, push, how on earth does the thing work?

Don’t worry, you’re not to blame. The culprit here isn’t your stupidity: it’s bad design.

More often than not, faulty design is the root of people’s failure to understand a product. These blinks examine how intelligent design helps users to easily and intuitively grasp a new product – and how designers can use the same intelligent principles to create great products.

In this pack you’ll discover:

how bad design got one man stuck between two glass doors,
how to find the root cause of any problem – but it’ll take some work – and
how fixing a simple design error helped save airplane passengers’ lives.

Products that are difficult to use or understand are the result of faulty design – not stupid users.

Have you ever found it impossible to get a new device working, like the remote control of a new TV set? If so, you’re not alone. Many people have difficulties using seemingly simple everyday products and often believe that they themselves are the problem. In actuality, the problem is bad design.

Bad design is the result of neglecting the relation between users and technology; good design brings technology and people together.

Imagine a TV remote. It’s capable of connecting and controlling all the devices – DVD players, satellites, game consoles, etc. – that are part of a home entertainment system. But in an effort to connect to so many devices, designers cram remotes full of confusing buttons and options – which makes them hard for people to use.

And although people may think that they’re too stupid to use a simple TV remote, the real culprit is the bad design that fails to connect the user and the technology.

So why does bad design happen?

In the modern world, one of the main causes of bad design is the incredibly rapid development of technology.

Take the way that cell phones have changed over the past fifteen years. They transitioned from touch pads to touch screens, and their main function is no longer just to make phone calls: now it includes texting, taking pictures, e-mailing, etc. While it’s convenient to have everything on one device, it also makes those devices prone to becoming overly complicated.

The ever-changing and developing nature of technology make it harder than ever for designers to make new products that are still easy to use. That’s why designers must always keep in mind that no matter how revolutionary a technology is, if it’s difficult or impossible to use, it will be useless to the consumer.

A well-designed product teaches its users how to use it.

Have you ever bought a new computer program and struggled to learn how it works, requiring you to constantly refer to the complicated instruction booklet? That’s a badly designed program.

Why?

The design process needs to consider human psychology.

Imagine you’re a product designer designing a new washing machine. Although it’s a common household appliance, your washing machine will need new features so it stands out from the competition. But for your users to be able to understand these new, unfamiliar features, you’ll have to take their psychology into consideration.

According to the author, users engage with a product on three different psychological levels.

The key to fixing bad design is to find the “root cause” of the problem.

Once you’ve discovered that people are having trouble using a product, how do you assess the main cause of the problem?

You need to find the problem’s root cause – because just as a Band-Aid is not effective for a knife wound, you can’t solve design errors by fixing superficial problems.

Good design uses product constraints to help the user understand the product.

Have you ever bought a wardrobe from IKEA? Despite many people’s claims that they’re a nightmare to put together, they’re actually incredibly easy to erect. Their ease of use is partly because IKEA’s products are full of constraints: clues and limits that direct how to use the product.

So how do so-called constraints work?

Well-designed products communicate with users by providing feedback.

Imagine you just got a new smartphone. You want to test the alarm, so you set the clock and wait. But how do you know the alarm is set? Usually, the phone will indicate it with a sign – for example, a little clock symbol in the top right corner. This tiny piece of feedback is a vital part of design.

Why?

Design needs to be human-centered to bring technology and people closer together.

Technology’s amazing evolution allows us to do things we never would have dreamed of twenty years ago. But despite technology’s progress, design often lags behind because, unfortunately, designers often forget the abilities and needs of the users.

That’s because, all too often, in an effort to make something radically new, designers forget who’ll actually be using the product in the end: people.

Successful products require patience and cooperation between marketers and designers.

Great, human-centered design isn’t enough to make a successful product on its own. For a product to be profitable, designers needs to work with other business departments.

For example, let’s look at touch screens like those found on smart phones. Although they’ve been around since the 1980s, they only started being widely used by the end of the millenium. Why? Because before then, the desires of both marketing and designers didn’t coincide.

Final Summary

The key message in this book:

Good design uses human psychology to create products adapted to users’ needs and desires. Human-centered design focuses on creating products for the users, and helps users learn how to use a product, avoid dangerous errors and bring users and technology closer together.

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Worum geht es in The Design of Everyday Things?

This book explores the cognitive psychology of good design and what makes a product that responds to users’ needs. The author develops the common barriers to good design, how to reduce and fix errors, and how to bring users and technology closer together.

Bestes Zitat aus The Design of Everyday Things

The important message is that good design can prevent slips and mistakes. Design can save lives.

—Donald A. Norman

Wer The Design of Everyday Things lesen sollte

Designers, product managers, distributors, creators and manufacturers
Anyone who teaches design or other disciplines requiring creativity and inventiveness from their employees

Über den Autor

Donald Norman is Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science at the University of California, San Diego. His other books include the best-selling Emotional Design and Living with Complexity.

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