The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

Every engineer or person who has anything to do with the design of products should read this book at least once. The Design of Everyday Things talks about a lot of the poorly designed everyday things that people encounter. Norman addresses many factors that contribute to a well designed product including:

• The psychology of everyday actions
• Knowledge in the head and in the world
• Human error of the user

Norman also talks about four principles that he feels lead to good design:

• Visibility
• Good conceptual model
• Good mapping
• Feedback

Overall the book was a very good read. It was pretty repetitive but the information it presented was very informative and useful. Many of the concepts presented in the book seem obvious in hindsight; however, I don't think I have considered them while designing. Anyone who designs anything to be used by people should read this book and apply the principles in it so we can eliminate all the terrible products out there.