The Design of Everyday Things - read it already

This is one of those books I reckon almost everyone should read.

It tackles a pile of concepts about design that are completely obvious once you’ve read them, but that you might never have come up with on your own. The one that stuck with me most: if you use a product and make a mistake, the product could have been made better to prevent that mistake. It’s not just that you are stupid.

Since reading it I notice well designed products much more, and badly designed ones too. There’s an automatic DeLonghi coffee machine I’ve used that could have learned a lot from this book. In my own software work I now think more about affordances, and when I make a mistake I ask how the software could have been built to stop me making it.

The book was written years ago, but it has needed only minor changes to stay relevant. The core design messages are incredibly valuable for anyone who is making anything. It’s also written well enough to be easily read cover to cover, and every chapter conveys valuable information, with helpful examples to cement the concepts.

Who should read it? I’d hand it to a technical friend first, but really anyone would benefit, which is why it gets 5/5 from me. Unlike something like Refactoring UI, which is technical and specific, this one is generally applicable - it’s about UX more than UI. The only people I’d let off the hook are those who’ve already read many design books. For everyone else, if you’ve been putting off reading this, don’t delay any longer. You’ll certainly get something worthwhile out of it.