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Reddit mentions of The Design of Everyday Things

Sentiment score: 39
Reddit mentions: 71

We found 71 Reddit mentions of The Design of Everyday Things. Here are the top ones.

The Design of Everyday Things
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Found 71 comments on The Design of Everyday Things:

u/undergoat · 52 pointsr/talesfromtechsupport

Um, part of UI design involves considering how you expose functionality to your users. You provide affordances so that people can maintain their mental model of how the object works. In this case, there was nothing to indicate to the user that a significant portion of the functionality (all dragging and dropping) had been disabled, nor was there any affordance to indicate how to re-enable that functionality. Choosing to not indicate to your users what state the object is in is a textbook example of poor UI design.

UI design is not just about visual composition, as you seem to be implying. That's a very narrow view, mostly held by web designers who (in their defense) are limited to working within the user interface of a web browser.

If you're actually interested in UI/UX considerations, and not just trying to troll and insult people, you might want to read The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.

EDIT: links

u/jeffderek · 37 pointsr/magicTCG

This is an improvement. I'll give you that. I appreciate the effort that went into it. It's very pretty in some ways, and the mouseover effect on the tiles is kind of cool I guess.

It's still an incredibly space inefficient way to distribute information. Look at this. I've got a 1920x1080 monitor with Firefox full screen, and I can't even see 9 of your links at once. I can't read the preview text of any of them without mousing over. Is there some reason you can't display this information in a manner where I can just, y'know, read it?

A good start to being able to display a lot of useable links to articles at once is within the article archives, which with a slight bump in title size would be an excellent front page set of article links, but even that is a pain to deal with because this is the first thing you see upon loading the archives. Full screen on a 1080p monitor and I can see the entire preview text of exactly one article without scrolling down.

This site was designed by someone who thinks a lot about how to make things attractive and is good with graphical design software, but has no concept of User Interface Design. Please buy everyone on your design staff a copy of The Design of Everyday Things and make it mandatory reading. It's very possible to design for both visual aesthetic as well as functionality, that just hasn't happened here.

Aside from that I'll echo the disappointment that you can't middle click on the giant boxes, only the "read more" link, no idea why that functionality doesn't work.

Let me reiterate that I believe this is an improvement and I appreciate that effort is being made to make a better experience, but there's still a long way to go, and a company the size of WotC shouldn't need me to tell it that.

u/meliko · 27 pointsr/AskReddit

Depends on what you want to do — UX is a pretty broad field. I'm a user interface designer with a UX background, which means I've designed sites, web apps and mobile apps, but there's plenty of UX positions that don't require any sort of visual design or front-end development experience.

For example, there are labs that conduct user research and interviews, run focus groups, or do user testing. Hell, you could even apply to be a user tester at a site like usertesting.com. Not sure how much money you can make from that, but it's something.

Also, there are UX positions that go from beginning research and discovery for projects up through the wireframing, which doesn't require any visual design experience. You'll usually hand off your UX work to a designer or a developer to implement.

Some good books to read about UX are:

u/mantra · 16 pointsr/cogsci

Not actually new; even bit. This dates back further to the 1960s and 1970s. All these concepts are, for example, the basis of computer-human-interaction theory. If cognitive scientist don't know about this and haven't been integrating it into their ideas already, they've been missing the boat and missing a wide swath of historical work.

It's the theoretical basis that was used practically to developed the radical computer innovations of Xerox PARC in the 1970s: you know, stuff like: window-based GUIs, mouse-based screen pointers, ethernet network connections between computers, object-oriented languages, laser printers, etc.

See the work of Alan Kay and others. It was that work that inspired Steve Jobs to create the Lisa and Macintosh, which begat MS Windows. His concept of the "Dynabook" is basically what the new Apple iPad is, for example. And yes, Apple usability taps into all this and still does.

When you use a modern computer, you are using embodied cognition theory. A mouse/windows GUI is tapping into the embodied metaphors of your inner 2-year-old self (Piaget's 1st "Pre-operational, Affective Learning" phase). Basically at that age you are moving objects in the physical world and learning physical NOUN-VERB and NOUN-VERB-NOUN concepts of manipulation and control. Note that this is also what the Montessori method of teaching is tapping into and trying to develop/enhance.

And the computer GUI metaphor attempts to recreate those actions. A mouse and windows GUI is is just a MOUSE-MOVES, MOUSE-MOVES-FILE, MOUSE-SELECTS-FILE, MOUSE-MOVES-FOLDER, etc. which are implemented in software/graphics to visually to look just like physical object manipulations.

This is just "2 year old skills" being tapped unconsciously because they've been deeply subsumed as embodied metaphors - they are second nature so anything that uses them is "easy to learn and to do".

This is the entire basis of most usability design in engineering. See Don Norman. The rest is empirical and theoretical mathematical characterization and models of the details. Things like Fitt's Law, for example, which is central to GUI design.

Contrast this with a computer command-line interface like DOS or UNIX. This is symbol manipulation rather than object manipulation (did I mention Object-Oriented Programming). You are tapping into your inner 12year-old self (Piaget's Formal operation stage with these interfaces. You can't actually "see" how the computer is doing things for you but you have an abstract response in the form of text symbols. But this level of cognition is not such a deeply subsumed level of your cognition in terms of metaphors so not so transferrable as skill leverage. It takes more effort and focus.

Some people, due to genetic or environmental reasons, never develop their abstract symbolic cognition very well. These folks usually and eternally suck at using command line computers but can do just fine with mouse-window GUIs.

This is because unless you have some serious mental retardation, everyone has about the same level of 2-yo cognition buried in their heads but not everyone the later developing 12+yo cognition. In a lot of ways, the success of computers is "proof" of Piaget after a fashion.

Edit: typos

u/ilikeUXandicannotlie · 15 pointsr/userexperience

Here are some things I (and I know others) have struggled with. I think the web is exploding with resources and information, so I don’t necessarily think we need to explain what a prototype is. There’s better places elsewhere to learn things about UX, but I think we could provide some good resources for not just people new to UX but everyone else too. I’m coming at this from what I wished I would have access to when I was trying to get into the field. I know that /u/uirockstar has some good walls of text that probably should be included as well. Feel free to suggest any changes to what I have here.




I really want to begin a career in UX/UI. What do I do?


Well, first it’s important to know that UX and UI are not synonymous. While many job postings combine them, UI is a subset of UX, just as research and information architecture are. UI is still important and if you can do both, you do increase your value. While many see UX as a research field at its core, the UX/UI title implies that it’s only about creating pretty things.

The first step is learning more about the field, which brings us to…



What kind of education do I need?


If you are still in school, there are more places recently that are offering courses in human-computer interaction. You can even try to create your own internships. There are very few UX specific schools, though they are starting to pop up, like Center Centre and General Assembly.



Yeah, yeah, that’s great. But I already graduated, so where do I start?


Any focus on people or technology can act as a solid foundation for learning UX. Because there has never been a set entrance path into the field, UX roles are filled with people from many different backgrounds. The most common degrees for those in the field though are design, psychology, communications, English, and computer science. link

There are a number of people in the field who are self-taught. There are tons of books, blogs, and designers (here are some helpful resources) which provide enough UX stuff to keep us all busy. When I first started reading about it, I quickly got overwhelmed because there was so much information available and most of it was intended for those who already had a pretty good grasp on things. The Hipper Element’s crash courses in UX and user psychology are great places to get a fairly quick overview.

There are books like The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk and Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug that make for great first books.

UX Mastery has a great eBook for getting started, appropriately titled Getting Started in UX. Kevin Nichols’ UX for Dummies is both very readable, yet detailed. You can even buy the eBook if you don’t want people on the bus to think you’re a “dummy.”

Lastly, Fred Beecher has a very extensive Amazon list of recommended UX books, depending on what area you are looking to learn more about.



Great. I’ve read a whole bunch of stuff and have a pretty good idea how UX works. Now how do I get someone to hire me so I can gain experience?


Hey, easy there. While, yes, there are lots of UX jobs out there, very few are entry level and not many employers will hire someone who has only read about it and not actually done it. You can’t get a job without experience and you can’t get experience without a job. I know. Frustrating, right?

You have to prove that you can do it. One way to do this is site redesigns.

Go find a website that lacks in it’s user experience and figure out how to fix it. Maybe it’s a small business down the street from you or maybe it’s a feature on eBay you think could be better. Redesigning sites is a good way to practice a process and make mistakes on your own time. If you can involve the owner from that small business down the street, that’s even better because then you can get a sense of the customers (users) that you will be designing for.

Once you have done this, you have (some) experience! Start a portfolio and add to it!



But I have a resume. Why do I need a portfolio?


Resumes are great. But resumes won’t get you a job starting out. It’s a million times more effective to show potential employers what you have done, rather than showing them a resume showcasing that you are a team player and proficient in Microsoft Office. But you should still have a resume that outlines your UX skills.



But I’ve never worked in UX! What should I put on my resume?


You don’t need to put all of your old jobs on your resume if they are unrelated to the field. Most places still want to see some work history so they know you haven’t been living in a cave for the last four years, but they don’t care about how you sold vacuum cleaners or trained circus horses. Maybe you can relate some crossover UX skills to your previous work.

Back to portfolios. They are a lot like elementary math class in that you want to show your work. Potential employers are much more interested in how you made a design decision rather than the final result. If your portfolio just has a bunch of fancy wireframes, that doesn’t tell them how you took specific personas into account and you are simply showing them something that looks pretty. And just because it looks pretty doesn’t always mean it makes sense.



Okay. I have a portfolio with a few unsolicited site redesigns in it.


Congratulations! But I have some bad news. Are you sitting down?

No one wants to hire you yet. You haven’t worked on any “actual” projects that showed how your UX skillz helped a business. I know I suggested you do site redesigns to get practice and you should because that is work you can take to a nonprofit or another small business and say, “here are some trial runs that I’ve done that prove I know what I’m doing and now I can help you for free in exchange for adding it to my portfolio.”

They’ll probably be skeptical and say, “hmmm… I don’t think my website needs this newfangled user experience you speak of and—wait did you say free?”

You both get something out of it and you’re doing it pro bono, which relieves you the pressure of making one tiny mistake. (There is a great site called Catchafire that matches non-profits all over the country with people looking to donate their time and skills.)

Once you have a portfolio displaying your work and some experience, start applying! But there is one more aspect that goes into getting hired and that is the people who will hire you.




Ugh, but isn’t networking just using people for my own professional gain?


I had this same mindset and it probably delayed my entrance into the field. I wanted to rely only on the quality of my work and trusted the rest would follow. I avoided networking and meeting people in the field because I didn’t want it to seem like I was only mooching for a job.

But the fact is people are altruistic in nature and like helping others. Many people also enjoy talking about themselves, and those are the two main principles of an informational interview. You’ll also find that people are excited to help others get started since they remember how difficult it was (see: this blog post).

It wasn’t until I started getting those informational interviews and talking with people at UXPA and MeetUp groups that I learned another side of UX, but also got more familiar with more hiring managers or those that knew them. Whenever possible, people will hire those they know and like. Until you get out and start shaking hands and kissing babies, you will be just another faceless name in a stack of resumes.

Meeting with recruiters/staffing agencies is also a good route as they make money by finding you a job, so they have a vested interest in giving you constructive criticism.




I've heard that you have to live in a big city to get a job in UX.


Move. Just kidding. But while it’s true that larger cities like New York, San Francisco, and Seattle are full of opportunities, there are plenty of other places around the country that have jobs. Here are the top 20. If you live in a tiny city, expect a tougher time finding a position.



Okay, I got an interview. How do I not mess this up?


Some great advice is to go all UX on your preparation and treat the interviewer like a user.

.......to be continued.



Blogs:

u/[deleted] · 12 pointsr/gamedev

Art of Game Design is quite good. Written in a nice conversational way that makes it feel more like listening to a speaker than reading a book.

Game Feel is fantastic. Written in a similar conversational nature, from the same publisher as Art of Game Design.

A Theory of Fun is nice, but pretty short.


The Design of Everyday Things is not about game design, but many of the principles contained definitely apply. It's a fantastic read regardless.

u/mglachrome · 12 pointsr/dwarffortress
  1. No capitalized hot keys
  2. undo on every non-trivial actions (squad/noble/military/burrow management.
  3. Everything that is longer than one page: make it searchable.
  4. For building walls/floors: Select material(s), just designate until done or out of materials.
  5. Standardized hot keys for every sub menu(stocks/trading/trading request/stockpiles, for a start)
  6. Offer undo for every non-trivial function (burrows/military/nobles)
  7. Unified scrolling: Not Pgdown/PgUp | +/- | / - *

    Actually, read some books about interface and object design - it is really fun and enlightening. For start: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465067107/
u/tiler · 12 pointsr/reddit.com

these were probably programmed by the cheapest programmers around without too much put into design, or the design work focused on the color scheme and not the functionality.

don norman's design of everyday things is a great read on the topic, if you're interested.

u/mechtonia · 11 pointsr/MechanicalEngineering

Try The Design of Everyday Things.

Every engineer should read this book.


FWIW, I discovered that good design always happens iteratively. The longer I spend in this career, the more convinced I am of this concept. The idea that an engineer sits down with a blank piece of paper (or screen) and creates an elegant, useful, efficient design is just a fantasy. As a consultant it is really hard to communicate this to clients. The cost of their one-off custom machine isn't going to be in the same ballpark as the standard model machine they bought a few years ago from a company that sales a few dozen of the exact same model every year. I say that to say, good designs don't come just from a good fundamental understanding of design principles, they come from actual experience in the relevant domain.

u/jolros · 9 pointsr/mildlyinfuriating

In The Design of Everyday Things, Donald Norman goes off on this, talking about how good design "affords" only the correct action needed to perform the intended operation. It's a good read if this kind of thing interests or infuriates you.

More here

u/legomyeggos · 8 pointsr/EngineeringStudents

The Design of Everyday Things. Gave me a different insight into products/things that people use. It's not always the user's fault, somethings things are just badly designed.

u/JoseJimeniz · 7 pointsr/programming

It's an engineering failure.

Yes. You should read the instructions and not do the wrong thing. But good engineering makes it easy to do the right thing.

Otherwise you end up accidentally hitting the ejection seat:

http://i.imgur.com/3UjM3Be.png

It's an engineering design failure. It's too late to fix it now - but it is still an awful, awful, design.

If you're interested in reading more about good design, I suggest the seminal book The Design of Everyday Things.

I would have used the code jjjj too represent the four digit year that nobody (within the statistical margin of error) ever meant to use.

u/anthropo9 · 6 pointsr/firstworldanarchists

Carelman did it first. See his "masochists teapot", featured on the cover of "the design of everyday things": http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0465067107

u/isharq · 6 pointsr/geek

Now, a cleverly designed card reader would have been built in such a way that the user can't make a mistake.

There are four ways of putting the card through the machine, but most people have figured out, by now, that the magnetic strip bit actually has to go down into the machine.

So, in the spirit of mr Norman, who apparently is a bit of an authority at these things, I ask of Reddit: How much would it cost to add a magnetic reader on both sides of the card reader?

That way:

  • It wouldn't make a hoot of a difference which way you put your card through the reader.
  • We'd save a ton of time at the cash registers
  • There's some redundancy: If one of the reader snuffs it, you turn the card around and use it the other way
  • Card readers would be just that little bit easier to use for everyone.

    See how easy that was?
u/invicticide · 6 pointsr/gamedev

An artist. :P

No but seriously, here are some things I'd love to be gifted as an indie game dev (if I didn't have them already):

  • Rules of Play. It's maybe getting a little harder to find at a reasonable price, but is a wonderful resource. Some people pan it as a beginner textbook, but as a 10-year game dev veteran I still go back to it occasionally and it reminds me about fundamentals I've let slip over the years. Worth every penny.
  • Envisioning Information. Not directly game dev related, but it's a definitive resource for the kinds of visual design problems we have to solve every day (and that so, so many game devs simply don't know anything about, sadly).
  • The Design of Everyday Things. You can probably get this in paperback for super cheap. It's old, and it's about industrial design, but more importantly it's usability. The core principles in this book should be the backbone of any game designer's education.
  • Got an excellent card/board game shop in the area? Gift certificate the fuck out of the bitch. (Video game devs loooove tabletop games. Yes, we're even bigger nerds than you thought.)
u/iamktothed · 6 pointsr/Design

An Essential Reading List For Designers

Source: www.tomfaulkner.co.uk

All books have been linked to Amazon for review and possible purchase. Remember to support the authors by purchasing their books. If there are any issues with this listing let me know via comments or pm.

Architecture

u/inconceivable_orchid · 5 pointsr/web_design

Absolutely. In fact, another book that was published a long time ago (1988) but is a must-have is "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman. Here's an Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107

The best thing about Don't Make Me Think is that it can easily be read in one day (or one plane ride, as the book itself touts).

u/EOMIS · 5 pointsr/TeslaModel3

Looks like that thing was designed by the same guy that does the UI.

Please, please, please, do us all a favor and read this book. It's not that long, and will be the most important book you've ever read:

https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107

u/I_WorkWithBeer · 4 pointsr/pics

As someone who just moved, I have to agree. I think boxed books out in the garage are more accessible than this. There are reasons certain furniture designs haven't been used. Its not because they haven't been thought of, but rather that someone realized it was functionally defiant.

Seriously, OP. Get this book for your friend. As a designer, It is honestly one of the best reads I have ever had. It is very conceptual, and really cuts to the chase one how to be artistic, creative, but never loose the basic necessity of function.

u/lapiak · 4 pointsr/Design

I'd recommend you read The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.

If everything is a wall of text, it's not quickly scanned. There are visual cues that aid scanning. Organization and hierarchy helps. Typographic choices in legibility and readability are also important.

u/CSMastermind · 4 pointsr/learnprogramming

I've posted this before but I'll repost it here:

Now in terms of the question that you ask in the title - this is what I recommend:

Job Interview Prep


  1. Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions
  2. Programming Interviews Exposed: Coding Your Way Through the Interview
  3. Introduction to Algorithms
  4. The Algorithm Design Manual
  5. Effective Java
  6. Concurrent Programming in Java™: Design Principles and Pattern
  7. Modern Operating Systems
  8. Programming Pearls
  9. Discrete Mathematics for Computer Scientists

    Junior Software Engineer Reading List


    Read This First


  10. Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware

    Fundementals


  11. Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
  12. Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art
  13. Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach
  14. Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
  15. Coder to Developer: Tools and Strategies for Delivering Your Software
  16. Perfect Software: And Other Illusions about Testing
  17. Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application

    Understanding Professional Software Environments


  18. Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game
  19. Software Project Survival Guide
  20. The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky
  21. Debugging the Development Process: Practical Strategies for Staying Focused, Hitting Ship Dates, and Building Solid Teams
  22. Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules
  23. Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams

    Mentality


  24. Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency
  25. Against Method
  26. The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development

    History


  27. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
  28. Computing Calamities: Lessons Learned from Products, Projects, and Companies That Failed
  29. The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management

    Mid Level Software Engineer Reading List


    Read This First


  30. Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth

    Fundementals


  31. The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
  32. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
  33. Solid Code
  34. Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code
  35. Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative
  36. Writing Solid Code

    Software Design


  37. Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide
  38. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
  39. Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
  40. Domain-Driven Design Distilled
  41. Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design
  42. Design Patterns in C# - Even though this is specific to C# the pattern can be used in any OO language.
  43. Refactoring to Patterns

    Software Engineering Skill Sets


  44. Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems
  45. Software Factories: Assembling Applications with Patterns, Models, Frameworks, and Tools
  46. NoEstimates: How To Measure Project Progress Without Estimating
  47. Object-Oriented Software Construction
  48. The Art of Software Testing
  49. Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software
  50. Working Effectively with Legacy Code
  51. Test Driven Development: By Example

    Databases


  52. Database System Concepts
  53. Database Management Systems
  54. Foundation for Object / Relational Databases: The Third Manifesto
  55. Refactoring Databases: Evolutionary Database Design
  56. Data Access Patterns: Database Interactions in Object-Oriented Applications

    User Experience


  57. Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
  58. The Design of Everyday Things
  59. Programming Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications
  60. User Interface Design for Programmers
  61. GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos

    Mentality


  62. The Productive Programmer
  63. Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change
  64. Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming
  65. Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering

    History


  66. Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software
  67. New Turning Omnibus: 66 Excursions in Computer Science
  68. Hacker's Delight
  69. The Alchemist
  70. Masterminds of Programming: Conversations with the Creators of Major Programming Languages
  71. The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood

    Specialist Skills


    In spite of the fact that many of these won't apply to your specific job I still recommend reading them for the insight, they'll give you into programming language and technology design.

  72. Peter Norton's Assembly Language Book for the IBM PC
  73. Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets
  74. Enough Rope to Shoot Yourself in the Foot: Rules for C and C++ Programming
  75. The C++ Programming Language
  76. Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs
  77. More Effective C++: 35 New Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs
  78. More Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#
  79. CLR via C#
  80. Mr. Bunny's Big Cup o' Java
  81. Thinking in Java
  82. JUnit in Action
  83. Functional Programming in Scala
  84. The Art of Prolog: Advanced Programming Techniques
  85. The Craft of Prolog
  86. Programming Perl: Unmatched Power for Text Processing and Scripting
  87. Dive into Python 3
  88. why's (poignant) guide to Ruby
u/AxonPotential · 3 pointsr/cscareerquestions

I recently graduated with my B.S. in psychology and will be heading to graduate school this fall to study Human Factors, also known as engineering psychology or ergonomics. Basically it's the application of psychology to the design of systems (hardware as well as software) and the environments they're deployed in. UX certainly falls under this umbrella, as the professor who will be my adviser is doing research in that area.

To answer your question, it's a yes as well as a no in my opinion. A background in psychology would be tremendously helpful in the field you're thinking of entering - knowledge about human behavior and mental processes is a pretty good thing to have when your goal is to design and improve the user experience.

As others have said, however, the minor itself won't necessarily be of any use. Employers generally won't care, and neither will any graduate schools you apply to. In other words, it's the knowledge you gained from studying the minor that will be attractive on your resume (or curriculum vitae), so be ready to explain exactly what you learned from studying psychology and how it makes you a better candidate for the position. Remember that the minor, if you choose to take it, will be little more than a footnote on your transcript in the long run.

To wrap this up, I'd like to wish you luck on this career path. UX is a really interesting subject that many people aren't even aware of. If you haven't already, check out the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Their site has some great resources for anyone who wants to learn more about the field (I used it to find grad schools to apply to). Lastly, I recommend reading Donald A. Norman's The Design of Everyday Things. It's the book that got me interested in this field in the first place, and is a really fun read.

If you have any further questions, I'll be happy to try and answer them to the best of my ability. Otherwise, good luck once again!

u/Random · 3 pointsr/gamedev

The Art of Game Design - Jesse Schell is very very good.

Game AI (Millington and Funge new edition iirc) is very very good.

Some non-game-design books that are very useful for those doing game design:

Scott McLoud: Making Comics (the other two in the series are good but the section on plot, characterization, and development in this one is great)

Donald Norman: The Design of Everyday Things. (How design works and how people interact with technology and...)

Christopher Alexander et al A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction (Thinking about scale and design elements and modularity and...)

Kevin Lynch: The Image of the City (How do urban spaces work - essential if your game is set in a city - how do people actually navigate)

Polti: The 36 Dramatic Situations (old, quirky, examines how there are really only a few human plots)

Matt Frederick: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School (how to think about and execute simple art, improve your design sense, ...)

u/atlaslugged · 3 pointsr/pics

Also the inspiration for the cover image of a great intro book on UI design.

u/arntzel · 3 pointsr/IAmA

I completely agree with Tootlips, design is tough for nondesigners. When making an application I often download as many apps as possible in that genre to see how other developers have built similar apps. If you are interested in learning design yourself I would recommend checking out Hack Design hack design and/or Udacity: udacity design. The Udacity course is based on a famous design book "Design for Everyday Things": Design-Everyday-Things

u/lgtm · 3 pointsr/androiddev

You can definitely make good looking apps on your own! Keep in mind, though, that interfaces are about aesthetics AND usability. You don't need any artistic gifts or graphic design skills to create an efficient and usable interface.

I know you're looking for something Android-specific, but I'd recommend starting with The Design of Everyday Things to get a high-level idea of how you should approach design. You might also want to consider watching Sketching and Experience Design, which is a 2007 talk given by Bill Buxton that covers the process of design. He also has an excellent book on sketching UI.

u/joenyc · 3 pointsr/userexperience

The Design of Everyday Things is definitely a classic. However, I think it's a victim of its own success - it's been so influential that I didn't find that much in it that I hadn't heard before.

u/haroldp · 3 pointsr/environment

My Costco had these last time i was there. They were cheap. They are difficult to pour from without spilling.

There are better and worse ways to design containers

u/morrison539 · 3 pointsr/gamedesign

Nice rundown. Here are some other books I would recommend OP check out:

u/vandebar · 2 pointsr/UniversityofReddit

Experienced designer here. The best way to learn to sketch by yourself is to watch tutorials and to practice a lot. The Gnomon Workshiop is an amazing ressource for basic sketching in industrial design. I strongly suggest that you check out the "Basic Perspective Form Drawing" DVD. A lot of student try to make awesome photoshop rendering before they know the basics of perspective, dont fall in this trap.

There is also ID Sketching which is a cool website with tutorials

A good book on the subject
Drawing Techniques for Product Designers

As for design theory, one of the most common reads in university is the The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman
The Design of Everyday Things

I remember a teacher saying that to be an expert at something you have to put 10 000 hours in it, so you better sharpen those pencils ! Tell me if you need more information.

u/Zamarok · 2 pointsr/intj

I can only choose one?!

User-experience design. I'm a web developer/designer, so much my work is to make websites intuitive and easy to use. As it turns out, doing this is quite difficult; UX design is almost a science in itself.

If you'd like to read a superb book on the subject, check out a book titled The Design of Everyday Things.

If you're still thinking "how complicated could it be?", check out this new edition to my bookshelf: The Elements of Typographic Style: a ~400 page treatment on typography alone. Very few notice the good/bad about the typography of a website or publication, if it looks nice, and less do anything more than just notice. Yet if it doesn't look so great, everyone will notice.

The mark of a good UX designer is that the user barely notices his design at all.

Or maybe number theory. If you let me, I'll lecture you about things like information theory, Euler's works, or my favorite math problems all day. :)

u/alilja · 2 pointsr/userexperience

I can't believe no one's suggested the phenomenal and foundational Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. He essentially created the idea of user-centered design, and his book is still the best overall explanations of what makes good design good.

I'm one of the founders of /r/designforpeople where we cover material like this. We're focused on the intersection between people and design, with a focus on how good and bad design affects the people that have to use it every day. We've just started up but I think you and your interest would be a great addition to it. If that sounds interesting — come check us out!

u/Leadpipe · 2 pointsr/gaming

Wow, that's a pretty broad question. I've attempted to answer this question in a number of specific ways and it always turns into a novel.
I'm not sure if you're referring to a single player experience or more of an MMORPG or even a pen and paper game. A lot of what I want is simply "good design" - things like systems that are deep enough that they offer variety, but are simple enough that I won't have to play more than an hour of tutorials (or explicit tutorials) before I can start playing the game, logical feedback (if I do something and it doesn't work I need to know why it didn't work - Final Fantasy is one of the most egregious offenders of this, using the "immune" excuse with no explanation), that sort of thing. If you haven't read [The Design of Everyday Things] (http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1261164209&sr=8-1) it's worth a look.

  • Setting: Sci-Fi/Fantasy are safe choices. I won't fault a game for being set in that, but a new setting would be welcome. Arcanum, BioShock, and the White Wolf series of games all made pretty good choices as far as that's concerned. The biggest pitfall/burden of most Sci-Fi/Fantasy settings is that depth is not assumed, so in order to make the world believable a lot of time and effort must be spent in developing the histories and relationships between factions and all of that. The closer you come to a contemporary setting, the less you'll have to invent. In any case, consider something other than Medieval Europe-ish/Space.
  • Action - If this is a video game you're talking about, make it feel visceral. Not just gore, but throwing fire on someone should be a big deal and if not, there needs to be a damn good reason for it. The same goes for any kind of damage. I hate when a tactical nuke doesn't even faze an enemy. Oh, and keep beating up animals to a minimum. I like a sophisticated enemy and fighting animals is not as interesting. If tabletop, streamline your combat system, but make it fair. A lot of pen and paper games have really cumbersome combat systems, which take hours to resolve a 30 second fight. If you can accomplish this, you're halfway there.

  • on the subject of races: you'll get it wrong. I don't mean that to be dickish, but races in RPGs are shorthand, high-contrast versions of the differences between different groups of actual humans. They're generalizations. TES did OK with their races (except the lizard and cat people), making them more like nationalities. IF you're going to play with new races, stick to that notion.

  • Otherwise, beware your conceits. You need to have logical systems for things. Magic? Sure, but why does it work? When does it not work? If shallow attention is paid to these things, you'll frustrate players when the assumptions they've made about things turn out to be (arbitrarily) false.

    This has gone on long enough. There's more, but I'm just getting preachy. Hope it's provided you with something to think about.

    Oh, I forgot depth of character interaction. Take a page from the BioWare book on that and take it further, if you can.
u/dustinmm80 · 2 pointsr/devops

Looks like you've got a great list already!

From an architecture point of view I really like The Design of Everyday Things.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465067107

I use it now as a reference to remind me to keep things simple.

u/MrLime93 · 2 pointsr/graphic_design

The psychology of design is something that's always interested me. I studied it for about a year and it killed. The work was intense but I got a good understanding for the user/designer thought process. If you are in the mood for some light reading then I'd reccomend The Design Of Everyday things by Don Norman

I'd also recommend looking into The seven stages of action concerning user centred design

Good luck with the thesis and keep us updated :)

u/Scott_Doty · 2 pointsr/cordcutters

I have not used NAS products but I used to teach ergonomics and would assign the students to design instructions as a class project.

Not sure what your approach is but if you are only testing or getting feedback from experienced users you may be missing out on some important opportunities that will help all users. Try testing things out with people that have varying experience levels. [Obviously getting feedback from experienced users as you are doing is also very important.]

A very easy read if you have not read it is:

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman

You may know of this already, not sure what the training is for technical writing.

u/Oleaster · 2 pointsr/graphic_design

The Design of Everyday Things is a great starting point and mandatory reading, in my opinion, for any designer (especially UI/UX).

u/syslinkdown · 2 pointsr/Favors

Sweeeeeet, thanks! It's a moderately famous (for a teapot, I suppose) example of self-defeating design. It's featured on the cover of The Design of Everyday Things and is a prized part of the author's personal teapot collection. I have a friend who really wants one. If you can CAD it, I can get it 3D printed in ceramic, fired and glazed. If I can do all that before some undetermined time in September, I'll have a lovely gift for when said friend (hopefully) passes an important milestone.

Again, thank you so much for even attempting this. PLEASE let me do something nice for you in return!

u/BrixSeven · 2 pointsr/learnprogramming

Apply this to the real world as well. Everything is designed like shit. I go on rants constantly. Any time anyone wants to make anything at work, they always hand it to me first to rip it apart.

Someone gave me this book back in college. You may find it interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107/

u/bklik · 2 pointsr/Android

Design and style are highly subjective. There are elements and rules that make things "look good" (contrast, alignment, proximity, repetition, etc.), but people can come up with many different things that are all good.

Usability is the same way. There are elements and rules that make things "usable" (Flow, Fitts' Law, Kinesthesia, affordance, etc.), but people can create radically different interactions that allow for the same goals.

Our role, is to act as a mediator. As Bill Buxton said, "design is compromise." You take all these grey areas and moving parts, and create a solution that gives the end user the best experience. You'll know its the best, because you can observe and measure it through usability testing.

If you want to make things look prettier, start by reading The Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams.

If you want to make things that work better, start by reading The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman.

Edit: Grammar

u/reddilada · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

Psychology of Everyday Things is the classic text on the subject but it doesn't have the photographic slant you're speaking of. Maybe you'll have some luck scanning the related books.

u/negative_epsilon · 2 pointsr/learnprogramming

Another "not really programming" suggestion:
Design of Everyday Things

u/faiz_malkani · 1 pointr/UI_Design

While it doesn't include layouts per se, one of my favorite books about design is http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0465067107/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

u/pipecork · 1 pointr/graphic_design

While usually prescribed to UX designers, I think Don Norman's Design of Everyday Things is an incredible must-read for anyone who designs anything.

u/brit_hoon · 1 pointr/motorcycles

> a 2013 Ducati Monster the other day, where you are required to toggle through the menus with a rocker switch and then hold it down when you get to the right one

Wow. The "press for A, hold for B" was literally a case study of what not to do from The Design of Everyday Things, over 10 years ago. It's bad at usability, and terrible at discoverability.

u/giraffe34 · 1 pointr/tea

I would suggest asking /r/design and /r/graphic_design for advice as well, along with reading some design books if you have the time to do so. I would recommend The Design of Everyday Things and Universal Principles of Design.

u/chrissmithhill · 1 pointr/userexperience

Sacha Grief has a good $6 ebook

I also recommend reading the classics

The Design of Everyday Things

and

The Inmates are Running the Asylum

u/MrBadger4962 · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Friends,

You should read a Don Norman book. The Design of Everyday Things. It is a must read for any engineer, and should be an eye opener for the general public.

http://www.amazon.ca/The-Design-Of-Everyday-Things/dp/0465067107/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334170562&sr=8-1

u/BlinkingWolf · 1 pointr/tipofmytongue

Found it! The Timeless Way Of Building was what I was looking for. Other interesting suggestions were A Pattern Language and The Design Of Everyday Things

SOLVED

u/FetusFeast · 1 pointr/books

lets see...

u/Fran · 1 pointr/books

I've never seen the movie objectified, but I love this book:

Robin Williams, The Non-Designer's Design Book

edit: After a quick look at IMDB, you may want to try a Donald Norman book like:

u/Philipp · 1 pointr/WTF

Thanks, just ordering the book now... sounds interesting. I fully agree that things should look like what they are because "people don't read".

u/jamesfilm · 1 pointr/gaming

Do you not agree that there are a whole load of really immature books about game design that are sold more on the fact that "its a book about games" than its inherent content ?

Even within the space of magazines I think it would be fair to call Nintendo power immature and something like EDGE , Games TM or Develop magazine Mature.

for someone starting from scratch you would get allot more by reading these books than by watching EC ( obviously can do both and EC is a nice starting pion for someone totally new to games)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0465067107?ie=UTF8&tag=alwaysblack01-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0465067107

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0273693646?ie=UTF8&tag=alwaysblack01-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=0273693646

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Game-Design-book-lenses/dp/0123694965

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-Koster/dp/1932111972

allso over view books on Game theory , the history of the microchip and computing , evolution and basic biology can be incredibly good in helping think about games as an art and the limitations in the development of software.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fun-Games-Text-Game-Theory/dp/0669246034/ref=cm_lmf_tit_12

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321193679/zx81orguk00

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0932633439/zx81orguk00

http://www.amazon.com/Computer-History-Information-Machine-Technology/dp/0465029906


I realise EC is just easily consumable general information and that's fine just wish they did it without the pretence , like I said in other comments I'm glad they make it even though it personally annoys the hell out of me its beneficial for games as a whole as there is a general lack of even moderately intelligent talk about games.


u/ActiveNerd · 1 pointr/software

Most of this convo is TL;DR but form skimming, I think I get the idea.

Two ideas:

  1. More customizations don't necessarily make software better. They make make it more aesthetic to you but most of the big companies are focused on making a product that works well for everyone and probably don't give much thought to individual users but instead the overall experience. They are solving a greater problem. I would actually counter your argument to say that if Windows Media Player had all the options of VLC that there would be someone else who would come along and say 'Options?! Screw options! We just make a player that plays stuff.' See book: The Design of Everyday Things and other design books. Simplicity is often overlooked.

  2. Freeware has more customizations because there are less users. Open source lends itself to someone who wants the feature to add it. Essentially, for a large company, the ROI is not worth it and the complexity could jeopardize their hold on consumers who are not as tech savvy. Customizations and freeflow can greatly increase the codebase and the complexity of the software scales with the square of the codebase (ie. more options make the software less maintainable. More tests. More bugs).
u/CodingDojo · 1 pointr/web_design

For UX:

'Don't Make Me Think' by Steve Krug. --> This is a great book for UX and design fundamentals

Link to purchase
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321344758/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=33857011795&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5285549020583777492&hvpone=22.79&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9tu6h5g71k_b

For Graphic Design Fundamentals:
'Creative Workshop - 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills'

Link to purchase
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Workshop-Challenges-Sharpen-Design/dp/1600617972

For Design as a whole!
'The Design of Everyday Things'

Link to purchase:
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107

The UX book and Design as a whole books are shorter and will be quick to complete. However, the graphic design book will be quite challenging, especially if you aren't familiar with Adobe CS. But I assure you that you will be a much stronger designer afterwards. (When I first started off doing graphic design, I wish I had this book to give me projects to work on)

Overall, expect to spend ~$40 on all this, but these would be a great place to start I think. 1 month time to finish reading the books, and 3 months to finish all the graphic projects.

Hope this helps, good luck!

  • Stephen, Student Advisor @ CodingDojo, a 12-week bootcamp for aspiring web developers in Seattle & SF (more info at http://codingdojo.com/l/info/r ).
u/johnmudd · 1 pointr/programming

Here's a more compact summary:

  • xxo: left
  • xoo: left (where key is null)
  • oxx: right
  • oox: right (where key is null)
  • xxx: full outer
  • xox: full outer (where key is null)
  • oxo: inner

    I suggest that the problem with SQL joins is a design issue. That is evidenced by the repeated post and blogs trying to explain joins. It is natural to try to compensate for bad design with more and more (and more) documentation. Usually followed by RTFM.

    The core issue is along the same lines as Bad Design 4: Seat Movement Controls from The Design of Everyday Things. The current solution (syntax) does not map well to what we have in mind.

    Now that we've defined the problem, here's a possible solution. Redesigned SQL.

    SELECT FROM TableA A XXO JOIN TableB B ON A.Key = B.Key;
    SELECT
    FROM TableA A XOO JOIN TableB B ON A.Key = B.Key;
    SELECT * FROM TableA A OXX JOIN TableB B ON A.Key = B.Key;
    etc.

    Any complaints?
u/shrubberni · 1 pointr/Design

I'm pretty sure you know I know what you mean, and that you know I know you know what I mean. I'm assuming everyone here read POET at some point.

u/GeneticAlliance · 1 pointr/web_design

First, check out Don't Make Me Think! by Steve Krug. It's an easy read and invaluable.

If you really like that approach then you should think about going into Interaction Design (aka usability, user-centered design, UX design, information architecture, etc.). I've been doing it for about 11 years and have only recently gotten into coding. Usually I produce wireframes and specs for the coders, do user research, and conduct usability tests. There nothing quite like watching someone trying to use your design and doing something completely different from what you expected.

I haven't kept up with some of the latest books out there, but some of my formative ones are:

u/Driver1928 · 1 pointr/WTF

You guys should appreciate "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald Norman. He points out the obvious that so many people overlook, like handles imply you are to pull.
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107

u/ferrarisnowday · 0 pointsr/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu

You're around that particular device every day. Just like you know how to use the doors at school or work. Such a mindless process can throw people off when it deviates from the norm, though. Maybe the Yes/No is switched left and right, or even top and bottom. Maybe the card swiper is on the top instead of the side, or swipes in the opposite direction. Sometimes you even insert the card instead of swiping. Some places don't even ask about cash back. Some places ask if your cashier greeted you on the screen.

The Design of Everyday Things is a good book on User Centered Design. Just because something is simple once you learn it doesn't necessarily mean it is well designed...even if learning it only takes 3 seconds.

u/TheHangmen · 0 pointsr/IndustrialDesign

I enjoyed The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman which everyone seems to recommend for designers of all types from UI to ID.

I haven't looked at any of the others suggested for materials but I was very surprised at how good Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals was when I was looking through it last week, it's full of images and diagrams and does a great job of going over things. Much more interesting than this book which I used in Man. Tech.

u/amemut · -2 pointsr/LifeProTips

Read this book and get back to me (amazon link, no hard feelings after all). Good design doesn't expect people to be machines. Instead it anticipates common mistakes and strives to minimize them. Clearly I'm not the first person to make this mistake (the customer service rep knew what my problem was before I had finished explaining it), so it's something that needs to be planned for and avoided. Switching the default address back to the old one over and over is the exact opposite of planning for the mistake, they're practically encouraging it.

>No. At a certain point, not paying attention to what you are doing has to be blamed on you.

Well yes. There's a balance here that I was implying with "at a certain point." Not every mistake is the designer's fault, but not every mistake is the user's fault either. Some things, like the present case, are both the user's fault and bad design. Just because the manual says "Don't push that button," that doesn't mean that the machine is well designed. Good design goes way beyond this, and users are better off when they call bad design what it is, even if it's their own mistake that they're pointing out when they do so.