''The Design of Everyday Things'' is a best-selling book by cognitive scientist and usability engineer

Donald Norman Donald Arthur Norman (born December 25, 1935) is an American researcher, professor, and author. Norman is the director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego. He is best known for his books on design, especially ''The Design ...

about how design serves as the communication between object and user, and how to optimize that conduit of communication in order to make the experience of using the object pleasurable. One of the main premises of the book is that although people are often keen to blame themselves when objects appear to malfunction, it is not the fault of the user but rather the lack of intuitive guidance that should be present in the design. The book was originally published in 1988 with the title ''The Psychology of Everyday Things''. Norman said his academic peers liked that title, but believed the new title better conveyed the content of the book and better attracted interested readers. It is often referred to by the initialisms ''POET'' and ''DOET''. Norman uses case studies to describe the psychology behind what he deems good and bad design, and proposes design principles. The book spans several disciplines including

behavioral psychology Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual ...

ergonomics Human factors and ergonomics (commonly referred to as human factors) is the application of psychological and physiological principles to the engineering and design of products, processes, and systems. Four primary goals of human factors learnin ...

, and design practice. A major update of the book, ''The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition'', was published in 2013.

In the book, Norman introduced the term ''

affordance Affordance is what the environment offers the individual. American psychologist James J. Gibson coined the term in his 1966 book, ''The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems'', and it occurs in many of his earlier essays. However, his best-know ...

'' as it applied to design, borrowing

James J. Gibson James Jerome Gibson (; January 27, 1904 – December 11, 1979) was an American psychologist and is considered to be one of the most important contributors to the field of visual perception. Gibson challenged the idea that the nervous system ...

's concept from ecological psychology. Examples of affordances are flat plates on doors meant to be pushed, small finger-size push-buttons, and long and rounded bars we intuitively use as handles. As Norman used the term, the plate or button ''affords'' pushing, while the bar or handle affords pulling. Norman discussed

door handle A door handle or doorknob is a handle used to open or close a door. Door handles can be found on all types of doors including exterior doors of residential and commercial buildings, internal doors, cupboard doors and vehicle doors. There are many ...

s at length. He also popularized the term ''

user-centered design User-centered design (UCD) or user-driven development (UDD) is a framework of process (not restricted to interfaces or technologies) in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or proce ...

'', which he had previously referred to in ''User-Centered System Design'' in 1986. * He used the term to describe design based on the needs of the user, leaving aside what he deemed secondary issues like

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

. User-centered design involves ''simplifying the structure of tasks'', ''making things visible'', ''getting the mapping right'', ''exploiting the powers of constraint'', ''designing for error'', ''explaining affordances,'' and

seven stages of action Seven stages of action is a term coined by the usability consultant Donald Norman. The phrase appears in chapter two of his book ''The Design of Everyday Things'', describing the psychology of a person performing a task. Building up the Stages ...

. He went to great lengths to define and explain these terms in detail, giving examples following and going against the advice given and pointing out the consequences. Other topics of the book include: * The Psychopathology of Everyday Things * The Psychology of Everyday Actions * Knowledge in the Head and in the World * Knowing What to Do * To Err Is Human *

Human-Centered Design Human-centered design (HCD, also human-centred design, as used in ISO standards) is an approach to problem-solving commonly used in process, product, service and system design, management, and engineering frameworks that develops solutions to p ...

* The Design Challenge After a group of industrial designers felt affronted after reading an early draft, Norman rewrote the book to make it more sympathetic to the profession.

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See also

References

Further reading