Chapter 12 -- Learn From The Design of Everyday Things

Chapter 12

Donald A. Norman's The Design of Everyday Things presents several fundamental user interface design principles that he derived by looking at the design of everyday things, such as doors, telephones, refrigerators, cars, VCRs, faucets, and such. While it can be fun and educational to consider the design of some everyday things and try to gain insight that can be applied to software, the goal of this chapter is to examine the design principles Norman presents and apply them directly to user interface design for Microsoft Windows.