Summary of Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious - even liberating - audiobook, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitrary relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on memorization.

The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints. The goal: guide the user effortlessly to the right action on the right control at the right time.

The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how - and why - some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Feb 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638152644

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Summary

of

Don Norman’s

The Design of Everyday Things

Table of Contents

Overview

Key Insights

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Important People

Author’s Style

Author’s Perspective

Overview

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman (2013) is a guide to understanding the relationships between people and the tools they use. Many people think design is dictated purely by aesthetics, but it must also consider practicality and users’ psychology. If any one of these three areas is ignored during the design process, a product is likely to fail.

Designers should always create with the needs of users in mind. When designing machines, it is particularly important to think about how humans will interact with the technology, and make use as easy as possible. When problems with usage arise, the fault lies with the design of the machine, not the human using it. Yet humans often blame themselves when they can’t get a complicated or new appliance or to work.