The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s dry — but if you let ideas percolate, rather than racing to finish it, I think almost everyone would find the intersections of engineering and design really useful to their work. Things I will take away: the product needs to also signify how to use it and constraints and mappings make it more useable. Also that the psychology of cultural legacy is a great hurdle in innovation. And this quote: “Badly designed products can induce frustration and anger, feelings of helplessness and despair, and possibly even hate.” In my industry, education, those feelings are exactly the antithesis of the desired result — yet I see those emotions every day. How can we recognize and work to eliminate those feelings in our product design every day? And that’s the reason I get up in the morning.

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