DESIGN OF EVERYDAY THINGS

Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious-even liberating-book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ign ores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The problems range from ambiguous and hidden controls to arbitra ry relationships between controls and functions, coupled with a lack of feedback or other assistance and unreasonable demands on mem orizatio...[Read more]