don norman the design of everyday things

Whether it is the layout of furniture in a room, paths in a garden or forest, details of an electronic device - someone has thought about the layout, use and mechanisms. If you haven't read this classic design book by Don Norman, I recommend you do.Don Norman, The Design of Everyday Things.įor whom: for everyone who is interested in how to influence the world around with the help of design.Įverything created by man has a design. So, a key question we can answer is how to keep the burden of complexity off of the user? The systems we work within and work to create can make all the difference in our ability to create simple, delightful experiences for people. Designers do their best to simplify solutions, but even the most elegant solutions still have some level of complexity (a burden).

This book has really opened my eyes to the concept of complexity as a burden. This is the job of Product Designers and UX Designers. Both user and business must work together in harmony. However, without the success of the business, we cannot serve the user. Without the success of the user, products and services will fail. Especially in the world of Product Design, designers must grapple with business challenges on a regular basis. A designer’s success hinges on the ability to design for the user to succeed in harmony with the business. There’s a ‘between-ness’ where designers often have to connect both the business and user needs in harmony. Testing helps expose where our affordances aren’t working well, so we can improve them. Since we’re creating these affordances we are biased to use the ones we intentionally place. But when we create false affordances, it makes experienced dreadful. When we intentionally deploy these affordances well, it makes experiences delightful. It’s like an outlet in a wall or a handle on a door. These points of engagement allow a user to take control of a situation. AffordancesĮvery action by a user needs a point of engagement. It can hide complexity and make product experiences feel ‘intuitive’. Discoverability is a tool that designers can use as a way to provide simple and easy interactions to complex situations. You can’t show all the intricate details of how something works upfront, but you can give them a clear path to discover how it works. It's been a while since I've read 'The Design of Everyday Things' by Don Norman, but I cracked it open today and pulled together a few reflections on the key takeaways that have stuck with me over the past few years: Discoverability

Don norman the design of everyday things