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Donald A. Norman
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The Design of Everyday Things Audio CD – Unabridged, March 1, 2021

by Donald A. Norman (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,673 ratings
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MP3 CD Format

First, businesses discovered quality as a key competitive edge; next came science. Now, Donald A. Norman, former Director of the Institute for Cognitive Science at the University of California, reveals how smart design is the new frontier. The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how—and why—some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.
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  1. Print length
    1 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Tantor and Blackstone Publishing
  4. Publication date
    March 1, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    5.3 x 7.5 inches
  6. ISBN-13
    979-8200089093
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Makes a strong case for the needlessness of badly conceived and badly designed everyday objects...This book may herald the beginning of a change in user habits and expectations, a change that manufacturers would be obliged to respond to. Button pushers of the world, unite."

-- "Los Angeles Times"

Provocative.-- "Time"

About the Author

Donald A. Norman is cofounder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an executive consulting firm that helps companies produce human-centered products and services. He is Breed Professor of Design Emeritus at Northwestern University and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego, where he was founding chair of the Department of Cognitive Science and chair of the Department of Psychology. He has served as Vice President of Apple computers advanced technology group, and his many books include Emotional Design, The Design of Future Things, and Living with Complexity.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08XN9G5M5
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tantor and Blackstone Publishing; Unabridged edition (March 1, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Audio CD ‏ : ‎ 1 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8200089093
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.89 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.3 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,673 ratings

About the author

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Donald A. Norman

Donald A. Norman

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Don Norman takes special delight in the interaction of people and technology. "Develop the skill of observation," he says, "and especially pay attention to the obvious, for this is where you will discover many hidden insights. What seems to be obvious often is not."

Business Week has named him one of "the world's most influential designers," the influence from his books, essays, courses and students, lectures, and consulting.

He is a fellow of many organizations, including the American Association of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineers and former lots of things, including VP at Apple Computer, President of a startup, and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group. He has honorary degrees from the University of Padua (Italy), the Technical University Delft (the Netherlands), and the University of San Marino. He was awarded the Benjamin Franklin medal in Computer and Cognitive Science and the Sir Misha Black medal for contributions to Design Education.

He is known for his books "The Design of Everyday Things," "Emotional Design," "Living with Complexity," and "The Design of Future Things," but he is most proud of his students all over the world, who put into practice his human-centered design philosophy.

His latest book is Design for a Better World: meaningful, sustainable, humanity centered" which draws upon his rich history to address some of the most pressing problems facing the world today. The real issues are not technical, nor can they be solved simply by technology. The most difficult is human behavior, which is why design can play such an important role. Design is a way of thinking, of solving the core underlying issues, combining a knowledge of technology, all areas of human activity, and most important of all, human behavior.

He lives at www.jnd.org, where you can find chapters from his books and loads of essays.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
1,673 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Nora McDougall
5.0 out of 5 stars "Required Reading" that became a favorite
Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2009
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It's not often that a book you are required to read for a college course becomes a favorite, but this one did. In fact, today I did a Google search for "norman door." Sure enough, Google has it cataloged. I even found a discussion on the term on a blog site. Even when the name of the book slips my mind, that term sticks. I Googled it because my copy of the book is packed away in a storage unit somewhere from two moves, and it's cheaper to buy another copy than spending 3 hours digging through boxes.

The ironic thing about this book being "required" is that it was requried for a masters level computer science user interface class at the University of Montana. It was the only textbook for the course, about 1/10 the price of normal textbooks and about 1/10 as heavy as normal textbooks. But the ideas are so very relevant. I will be recommending it to my own web development students, even though the book isn't about web development.

By the way, has anyone out there found any Norman signs lately? The Missoula Federal Credit Union has a sign touting their Saturday hours. Unfortunately, the sign failed to mention that that doesn't apply to Saturday on Memorial Day Weekend! Maybe they should read the book!
2 people found this helpful
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Brian L. Donat
5.0 out of 5 stars Light Read, Dated, but Still Applicable.
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2010
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The authors of HCI, Human Computer Interface, Dix, Finlay, Abowd and Beale, recommend this book in their early chapters. The recommend was taken to heart and the book was purchased. It's a small pocket book sized tome and may be considered pertinent, but light reading. It begins humorously, but within the first two chapters, the message of the work begins to get hammered in. It'll be a new concept some, - information in the world as compared to information in the head. There's a lot of basic HMI/HCI/Human Factors type stuff as related to user interface failures and successes. It's a sort of philosophical approach to interface design ideology in layman's language with examples and analogues. Pack this book into the brief case, the back pack or whatever, and read it while at the beach, on the bus or between more detailed knowledge seeking excursions. Take a break and absorb some reflection on pertinent interface design philosophy and then jump back into the tough stuff. Yes, it's light reading. But it's valuable light reading. The message and import are worth the journey.
2 people found this helpful
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Peter Chen
4.0 out of 5 stars Great High-Level Thinking
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2013
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The book condition and seller were great.

The book itself provided great perspective and challenges the reader to look at everyday things from a good/bad design point of view. Norman also gives design guidelines (e.g., natural mappings, visibility, feedback etc) that the reader can focus on an implement when designing.

The book was not so good in terms of organization and consistency. Ironically the book is about good design, but the layout is lacking. First level headings are in Initial caps and aligned right, while second level headings are in all caps and aligned left. Third level headings are also all caps (with smaller font size) and aligned left. In general, I believe all caps are thought to be "bigger" and should be the first level headings and second level headings should use initial caps and third level should use initial caps and italics. I think this, at least now, is a typical cultural convention as well. If I saw only an outline of the book with all the different headings, I think the organization could be improved.

In terms of consistency, throughout the book he talks about design principles, things to keep in mind, and evaluates items back to his ideal design elements. However, that list isn't described consistently. In the 2002 preface (p.xi) the list of design principles include: conceptual models, feedback, constraints, and affordances. On p.4 Norman introduces the principle of visibility. On p.23 Norman introduces the principle of mapping. Visibility and mapping are related to conceptual models, but should not be identified as a "principle" or should have been included in the list of principles on p.xi. Norman defines his credo on p.36 for errors, which is great, but, in my opinion, should be included as a design principle. Throughout the book Norman gives examples and relates the design to the principles he's outlined, but only to some of them and not all.

To improve this read, I would recommend: (1) revise the organization and layout; a good and "symetrical" outline would greatly improve readability and would better convey the "conceptual model" of Norman's message, (2) revise the formatting of the heading levels, (3) formulate a complete list of design principles at the beginning of the book, (4) for each example, evaluate the design with respect to all of the design principles, not just some of them
3 people found this helpful
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Sarah Heinzelwein
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for any designer of any kind
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2017
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This is essential and timeless reading for any designer. It's tough to get through, ironically because it's a book about usability and accessibility in design and it's just oceans upon oceans of text. But Donald Norman is brilliant and the ideas are sound. Consider that the original book was written long before the internet and that the revised edition in the late 90's or early 00's hadn't really gone out of date. The principles are still completely relevant and not dependent on fads or changing technology. If you are an artist, industrial designer, graphic designer, tech industry professional, or just a curious human, read this book. Don't let the Norman door hit you on the way out. (What does that even mean? Well, read the book and find out!)
7 people found this helpful
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Daniel J. McElroy
5.0 out of 5 stars For Experts and the Public
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2013
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This is more of a popular book than scholarly. It is not a reference. However, the message goes far beyond every day things. It is a message about physical, mental and organizational systems and how humans people interact with systems. I link this to Simons and Chablis, "The Invisible Gorilla" and Reason, J. "Human Error." All four authors are cognitive psychologists whose research and knowledge of research show that human brains function well in certain ways and not so well in others. Thus, anything we use, be it physical or cognitive, can be designed to maximize or interfere with effective and efficent usage. This isn't just stupid, dysfunctional object design, like the picture on the cover. Once you learn Reason's error model and Norman's observations you begin to see how objects and processes set us up for error and failure.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Diana Ferriz
5.0 out of 5 stars Todo Ok
Reviewed in Spain on March 29, 2021
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Muy buen libro
One person found this helpful
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Anna Kop
5.0 out of 5 stars This book, along with a few other things piqued ...
Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2017
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This book, along with a few other things piqued my interest in the design field. It made me look at ordinary objects in a new way. It's been several years since I've read it, and I haven't looked back.
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Denis
5.0 out of 5 stars sehr interessantes Buch
Reviewed in Germany on May 7, 2019
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Ich habe mir dieses Buch gekauft, weil es mir in einem Podcast empfohlen wurde. Design ist unglaublich wichtig und dieses Buch erklärt sehr gut warum und auch wie man das praktisch umsetzen kann. Auch für neue Technologien und Software ist gutes, bedienbares Design unabdingbar. Der Autor beschreibt seine Ideen mit einfachen Worten und man interessiert sich für das, was er als Nächstes beibringen möchte. Kann das Buch jedem weiterempfehlen, der sich für Design interessiert.
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read.
Reviewed in India on July 11, 2017
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This is by far the best design-psychology book I've read. It is a great read for anyone who is a product designer, architect, UX designer, computer programmer, electronics and communications engineer, psychologists and people are really curious about everyday objects.

The older edition of this book (over 25 years ago) was called "The psychology of everyday things", and this is a revised edition - the examples are more suited to today's world as the internet and technology have greatly changed the way we live. I found it really interesting. I am always the person who tells people to read manuals if they can't understand how a device works. After reading this book, I stopped doing that- it is not people's fault if they have to struggle to figure out things. It is the designer's responsibility.

This book also delves deeply into the workings of the human brain and how it has evolved and how memory and assumptions work and don't work.

[I bought a paperback version of this book - the images and diagrams are all in black and white and font is okay, but the page quality is quite good, so is the binding.]
9 people found this helpful
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Eric Konigsdorfer
2.0 out of 5 stars Design from an engineer's mind perspective
Reviewed in Australia on January 19, 2023
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Don Norman started his career an Electrical engineer, then went into Psychology, and finally something directly related to understanding effective design, he studied cognitive science. So, my point here is that Don is an engineer and a psychologist, but not a designer. Hence a lot of schematics and acronyms along the pages of this way too long and hard going book. Try explaining what Love is with a series of diagrams and acronyms, instead of using poetry, that is how this book goes by explaining effective design. BUT, do not get me wrong, this book is perfect to explain design to engineers and accountants... ie, people very far from instinctively understand what design is. It is good for people with a non-creative mind. But for design students and design professional, I do not think that this is the best book. It is still worth a read, but far from life changing. It is also way too long, with a lot of simple arguments repeated too many times, with way too long explanations, and demonstrations. This book could be written in a tenth of its size, and save paper. Still, most of the arguments proposed in this book are 100% valid, it is the way the information is analysed and delivered to you that is so painful, to me anyway. Some of my best friends are engineers, and let's face it; they are not normal people! (sic) Engineers and creatives live on different planets, and with that in mind, just be aware that this book is not tailored for the artistic/creative mind, but more toward the engineer that is about to design the control panel for a new washing machine, or a nuclear power plant. This is just my opinion, and I accept that I could be completely wrong.
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