The book “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman absolutely did not meet my expectations. The reason for this was a misunderstanding of the synopsis on my part. I expected a book filled with numerous examples of good and bad design, a sort of entertaining read, and perhaps even colorfully illustrated. But the book turned out to be something entirely different.
This book is about proper design. And it’s not limited to just objects: it covers anything from the things around us to technological devices, rules, and procedures. The key idea is that the solution should best fulfill its purpose.
The author does provide examples of both good and bad design, but not as often as I had expected, and more as illustrations to support his thoughts and conclusions.
We’ve all encountered bad design in everyday life in one way or another. Don Norman aptly points out: “It is easy to design devices that work well when everything goes as planned. The hard and necessary part of design is to make things work well even when things do not go as planned.” And things go wrong when the user doesn’t understand how to operate the object. I’m sure everyone has examples like this.
In my job, I’ve traveled quite a bit around the world, and bad design is truly everywhere: doors, cabinets, hotel safes, train doors, switches, plumbing, etc.
For instance, I came across metal shower switches that looked amazing, but to adjust the water, you had to press a small button and then turn a stiff handle. When your hands are soapy, it’s nearly impossible. I know this from personal experience when I had to step out of the shower and dry my hands with a towel just to turn the water back on. At that moment, I wanted to strangle the designer who came up with this solution. The next time, I simply left the water running while I soaped up, meaning I didn’t conserve water.
Or take Korea, where the toilet looks like a spaceship. Most functions are inaccessible to the uninitiated. There are plenty of labels, but they’re in hieroglyphs, and there are many features you’d never expect or know to look for in a regular toilet.
And when I was designing my apartment, the electrician asked me to clearly mark where all the outlets would go. On the plan, it looked neat and well thought-out, but once I bought the furniture, I realized that about a third of the outlets would be either covered by furniture or far from where the necessary appliances would be.
I could go on forever. And the issue isn’t just poor design—you can work around that. The author also describes cases where the designer lives in a completely different reality and solves problems without considering the user.
The book essentially outlines a method for how to design solutions, what to take into account, and what to think about in advance. Most importantly, it warns against solving just the task that was set before you. Yes, it sounds strange, but it’s true: by solving the assigned task, you might make the client happy, but it’s far from certain you’ll make them (or their users) truly satisfied. That’s because the task might not address the real problem, only the symptoms:
One of my rules in consulting is simple: never solve the problem I am asked to solve. Why such a counterintuitive rule? Because, invariably, the problem I am asked to solve is not the real, fundamental, root problem. It is usually a symptom.
In the end, the book is far from light reading. Moreover, I wouldn’t say it’s a book you can (or should) binge-read. For me, reading it that way would have been difficult. I read it in small sections, then took a break to digest what I had read for a few days before continuing.
However, the book is indeed very thoughtful and useful. I highly recommend it to anyone whose work or calling involves creating something new (even if it’s a well-rethought version of something old).
Despite this recommendation, I did lower my final rating (though I still recommend it). I feel that some parts of the book could have been shortened, which would have made it easier to read and better absorbed.
My rating: 3.5/5
