Poor Kindle edition
I got the Kindle edition of this book.
Font is very hard to read and there is a lot of mangled words.
Images in the book are unusable due the poor quality (too grainy).
There are no navigational elements in this book. These are not essential but it would nice to have them. Especially for figures and footnotes.
I love reading books on Kindle but for this one I recommend a hard copy.
A Must Read for every Designer
As a human being we think we know other people and how they see and use products. This book tells many amusing anecdotes about products that were not successful because the designer made the things is a way he would have liked and not in the way real users use it. The book is written full of humor and with real passion for the subject.
Outdated, better books available
This book is a classic in the sense that it was once groundbreaking, in that it pointed out obvious flaws in industrial and software design. However, a lack of any updates outside of a new introduction leaves the book stale and dated. Complaints about the design of 1980s DOS software and VCRs is now of only historical interest.
One of the best books any designer could read
So often "design" books seem to go on about looks and "feel" yet only brush over the physiology of design. This book shows you how to think like a user, explorer like a user, error like a user and design for helping the user love your product.
Anyone reading this book will instantly appreciate truly good design over the average mud we currently live in.
It's OK - but how can this be the seminal book on usability...?
Having heard that this was the seminal work in usabiliy, my expectations were probably too high.
Some of the principles laid out are indeed excellent and well illustrated.
The structure of the book is - ironically - not crystal clear. As I am reading the book I find myself looking back at the table of contents to understand the structure.
The writing style is slightly entertaining at first and you sympathize with the author hanging out himself as a clumsy and spacey academic. However, after the first 30 pages the rambling style and the somewhat unstructured content makes the book really boring. I had to push myself to finish it.
What strikes me is the lack of other books in this topic. Despite my criticism I'd be curious to read Norman's new book.
(150 reviews)
