Have you ever noticed how many products appear to be designed by someone who has never used a product of that kind before? Nearly everyone has encountered websites, software apps, cars, appliances, and other products that made them wonder what the designers were thinking. The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things presents more than 160 examples of products that violate nine fundamental design principles, along with suggestions for improving many of the flawed user interfaces and other design problems. These examples of thoughtless design reveal 70 specific lessons that designers ought to heed as they craft the user experience, grouped by these design principles:
* Make the product easy and obvious to use.* Consider realistic usage scenarios.
* Consider a wide range of usage environments.
* Make it hard to make a mistake.
* Provide meaningful feedback.
* Don't waste the user's time.
* Design for the user's convenience.
* Accommodate the range of human variation.
* Place the minimum mental burden on the user.
This book describes numerous specific practices for enhancing product usability through usage-centered design strategies. You'll also see more than 40 products that exhibit particularly thoughtful designs, the kinds of products that surprise and delight users. Whether you're a designer, a product development manager, or a thoughtful and curious consumer, you'll find The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things engaging, informative, and insightful.
About the Author
Since 1997, Karl Wiegers has been Principal Consultant with Process Impact, a software development consulting and training company in Happy Valley, Oregon. Karl is the author of Successful Business Analysis Consulting, Software Requirements, More About Software Requirements, Practical Project Initiation, Creating a Software Engineering Culture and a forensic mystery novel, The Reconstruction. He received a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois. During the past 50 years, he has designed chemistry experiments, software applications and user interfaces, software development processes, books, games, and training courses.
