Amongst the overwhelming mountain of books out there, The Design of Everyday Things is one of the most frequently recommended books from those who are in the UX/UI and design space.
I’ve tried my best to select 3 key learnings I’ve taken away from the book, which was difficult since there’s so much good material in there.
1. Human error is usually the result of poor design.
Often, machines require humans to behave in unnatural ways, but the fact of the matter is that humans are bad at tasks that require them to be precise or multitask. Rather than blaming humans, we should instead shift perspectives and look at the design. Designers play a key role in ensuring that opportunities for human error are minimized, or as Don Norman likes to call it, system error.
Good design incorporates the following key elements: affordances, signifiers, constraints, mappings, and feedback. These elements allow the user to discover and understand what actions are possible, and where and how to perform these actions on the product. Further, having a good conceptual model allows the user to have a better understanding of how to interact with the product. The underlying premise of the book is based on these 6 principles, so I figured I’d give a slightly more detailed summary of each.
Affordances
This is the relationship between the object’s properties and the person’s (or any other interacting agent's) capabilities, which helps guide how the person can interact with the object. The key takeaway here is that an affordance is not a property - it is a relationship between the product’s properties and the specific person interacting with it. There could be different affordances for two separate people utilizing the same product because one person’s capabilities may differ from the other.
Signifiers
A signifier is almost like an extension of the concept of an affordance. It is exactly as the name sounds - a signal that communicates to the user where and how it can interact with the product. A signifier can be intentional or unintentional, but must be perceivable. On the other hand, an affordance can either be perceivable or not.
Constraints
While good design focuses on incorporating signifiers to make it obvious to the user how the product can be used, constraints are also important in limiting how the user can interact with an object, or forcing a desired behaviour.
Mapping
Mapping uses spatial correspondence between the layout of the controls on a object and the object being controlled. If possible, controls should be close to the object being controlled, such as being mounted directly on the object.
Feedback
The more immediate feedback is, the more effective it is; otherwise, feedback does not properly communicate to the user what has gone wrong, what the user is doing right, or if the action has even been received. Having feedback as quick as 0.1 seconds of the action is desirable but it’s also important to not bombard the user with too much feedback!
Conceptual model - Or mental model, contributes to the understanding of how a product works. The 5 elements discussed previously help the person form a conceptual model of how to use the product.
Good designers do not solve the problem they are asked to solve.
Generally what people think is the problem, is not the actual problem. Good designers begin the process by digging deeper to uncover the underlying problem; rather than jumping directly into developing a solution for the problem that has been presented to them. This analysis can be achieved by utilizing the Double Diamond Model and the human-centered design process iteration cycle of observation, idea generation, prototyping and testing.
*insert picture*
The first part involves identifying the problem by researching the different potential issues targeted customers would face before finally defining the single problem. Next, comes idea generation; brainstorming as many solutions as possible. A key point here is to avoid shooting down ideas early in the process - even the outrageous ones because these might actually include some valuable creative insights! To check whether the generated ideas actually work, prototyping and testing on users who closely represent the ideal target customer is important.
In an ideal world with unlimited time and money, this cycle can be applied repeatedly until the problem is resolved perfectly but per Don Norman’s Law, “The day a product development process starts, it is behind schedule and above budget.” It is important for a designer to be solving the right problem but often, budget restrictions prevent this from happening. Separating the research portion of the process to another team would be ideal.
Don’t catch featuritis!
Once a product has been out on the market for quite some while, there are external pressures from competitors to up the ante and make the product ‘better’ by adding new features. Sometimes it reaches a point where there are so many features on the product, it is no longer coherent or usable.
Rather than working on areas of weakness and trying to make them stronger, designers and companies should focus on their strengths and growing the product in that aspect even more, as long as the other features are good enough.
Ignore the noise! The key to good design is to focus on the customer.
The original version of this book was written in 1988 and since then, one revision has been made in 2013. Despite this, many of the concepts and principles are still applicable because design is focused on the psychology of people, which generally stays the same. The book is jam packed with a lot more valuable content than what I’ve selected to write about above. Overall, it’s a great book for both beginners and pros and also is not only for those who are aspiring to be designers - it provides interesting perspectives to be considered in everyday things.