A review by jackwwang
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
4.0
The first point Norman makes in this design manifesto is that in cases of most user misuse of an object, the fault lies not with the user but with the design of the object. As an individual who knows well how to direct anger at the unknown designer of a byzantine shower handle, "The Design of Everyday Things" does not offer paradigm-breaking insights. I would call it a formalism of common sense when it comes to how to think about the interaction of objects and people. This is not a fault, in fact I found it very useful to have vague notions in my head of sensible design unpacked and affirmed and explained in more technically precise terms.
It HAS inspired a sense of optimism about the potential to improve the world in applying some of these common design principles to more things and systems. In fact I was very excited at Norman's section on design of systems, in which he repeatedly compare modern commercial aviation against healthcare as a case study between a system that has performed with laudable consistency in safety due to sound design vs another system which vastly under performs potential in outcomes and safety due to resistance against the same principles. As someone who works in healthcare, this is another useful framing of vast problems of our healthcare system. A part of it is a design problem. Now the true challenge may not be having the right design, in fact I know that for a fact, the true challenge is in the details, in implementing these principles to the existent possible given entrenched interests, conservative culture of doctors, and the huge financial stakes.
This is an immensely readable work filled with interesting anecdotes, and at the very least upon a reading you should take away a useful vocabulary for how thing evaluate the design of things. Concepts like affordances, signifiers, constraints, discoverability, and feedback may not be original or groundbreaking, but they are useful articulations and reminders of important criteria for almost everything we interact with from our smartphones to shower handles to the modern healthcare system.
It HAS inspired a sense of optimism about the potential to improve the world in applying some of these common design principles to more things and systems. In fact I was very excited at Norman's section on design of systems, in which he repeatedly compare modern commercial aviation against healthcare as a case study between a system that has performed with laudable consistency in safety due to sound design vs another system which vastly under performs potential in outcomes and safety due to resistance against the same principles. As someone who works in healthcare, this is another useful framing of vast problems of our healthcare system. A part of it is a design problem. Now the true challenge may not be having the right design, in fact I know that for a fact, the true challenge is in the details, in implementing these principles to the existent possible given entrenched interests, conservative culture of doctors, and the huge financial stakes.
This is an immensely readable work filled with interesting anecdotes, and at the very least upon a reading you should take away a useful vocabulary for how thing evaluate the design of things. Concepts like affordances, signifiers, constraints, discoverability, and feedback may not be original or groundbreaking, but they are useful articulations and reminders of important criteria for almost everything we interact with from our smartphones to shower handles to the modern healthcare system.