The Design Of Everyday Things Review

I just finished reading The Design Of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. Although this book is really focused on design of physical objects, as a web designer, I always love reading about design theory in general. While I can’t use most of the examples as is, there are tons of concepts, design standards and theories that could potentially give websites an enormous edge in terms of usability.

I just wanted to put a few of my favorite quotes/saying from the book here to give you an idea of what it’s all about. Mind you this is a thousandth of the information from this book. It really is an exceptional book to read if you are at all curious about the theory of design and really knowing how much work goes into designing something as simple as a pen.

Assume that any error that can be made will be made. Plan for it. Think of each action by the user as an attempt to step in the right direction.

…yet we (designers) are separated from the end users by multiple layers of corporate bureaucracy, marketing, customers services, etc.

Improvements can take place through natural evolution as long as each previous design is studied and the craftsperson is willing to be flexible.

The Seven Principles for Transforming Difficult Tasks Into Simple Ones

1. Use both knowledge in the world and knowledge in the head
2. Simplify the structure of the tasks
3. Make things visible: bridge the gulfs of Execution and Evaluation
4. Get the mappings right
5. Exploit the power of constraints, both natural and artificial
6. Design for error
7. When all else fails, standardize

If you’re serious about design, you must read this book…but only if you’re serious

The Design of Everyday Things

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