The seminal work on design philosophy. In just over 200 pages Don Norman details the psychological principles of design. The book was written in 1988, so the examples may be a little dated, but the principles remain the same.

• Visibility
• Feedback
• Affordances
• Natural Mappings
• Constraints

I feel like a switch has been turned. I’m constantly evaluating the design of various objects. I’ve always noticed poor design (everyone does, it’s annoying) but now I’m excited by fantastic design. When something is designed such that I can accomplish my task without breaking my train of thought, that’s great design. It should “win a prize.” Doors are of constant scrutiny after finishing this book. I cringe when confronted with a vertical handle that needs to be pushed or a horizontal bar with “PULL” on it. An amusing example: What’s Wrong with this Door << Not the User's Fault.

The book concentrates on physical objects (ie the ‘Norman Door’), but there is no reason the idea’s can’t translate to UX. The chapter on poor design and user error was especially interesting.

I point out that the design is faulty and that others make the same errors. Still, if the task appears simple or trivial, then people blame themselves

I encounter this all the time with technology. Poorly designed software can turn people off from computers completely. Developers have gotten quite a bit better at this over time. Microsoft Office 2007 and it’s ribbon menu was a bold redesign, which payed off well.

Great design flows without interruption. It is modeled with human interaction in mind, requiring no instructions or labels.

Wherever labels seem necessary, consider another design.

It’s a great point. By utilizing constraints, natural mappings, and visiblity a designer can communicate with the user. No instructions needed.

Sometimes designers utilize these principles incorrectly or by accident. Users are then communicated bad information and errors result.

When someone makes an error, there usually is good reason for it

A few other tidbits I found interesting:

Whenever the number of functions and required operations exceeds the number of controls, the design becomes arbitrary.

ie, the digital watch my Dad can never program.

And just how important design is:

Suppose that each everyday thing takes only a minute to learn; learning 20,00 of them occupies 20,000 minutes – 33 hours or about 8 forty hour work weeks.

How do people cope?

Part of the answer lies in the information available from the appearance of the objects and part comes from the ability of the designer to make the operation clear.

All things considered the book was a fantastic read. It delivers a foundation for my interest in UX. I’m looking forward to reading more of Norman’s work.