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Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
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Written by a Usability Guru, some of the examples are a little dated, but still valuable for today's usability issues. A good read and well written.
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Norman has created an entertaining and enlightening treatise on the psychology of everyday objects. Why do some things work so well while others completely baffle? What distinguishes successful utility from frustration? How does one research and develop successful products? Most importantly, how does one avoid wasting time developing products that are doomed to fail? Many everyday objects are examined for their utility and user-friendliness. Norman uses three basic concepts, Affordances, Constraints, and Mappings to deconstruct everyday objects.
If you are designing Web sites, user interfaces for computer applications, writing manuals, or creating anything that will be used by a human being, this book will help you succeed. Norman encourages you to remove your creativity and ego from the process by affording you the objectivity to examine the goal from the point of view of the user. He shows you how social and cultural constraints can be used to enhance products.
An excellent book but you must understand that using Norman's advice requires no small amount of humility which makes it difficult to sell to established shops. For instance, I know a Web design team that uses the "don't make them think" mantra for many decisions. But they've been using it so long they think they know everything about the best Web interface design. Their prejudices get in the way of successfully developing half of their projects because they can no longer think like users and visitors. They might never be able to use Norman's advice because they'd see it as obvious and pedestrian.
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Even though some people think this is not useful in practice, I strongly believe this is a must read for anyone who designs an artifact for users. A very amusing and thoughtful book. Can even be used as a required reading in many courses such as UI design.
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Without question, a wonderful piece of work!
(I've given a dozen copies to students as inspiration.)
However, the publisher's stinginess in neither providing adequate interior margins (between pages) nor adequately accommodating for the thickness of the book by type placement on the page is a perfect illustration of the design failures under discussion.
The type has to be read curved & distorted over the waves of too thick pages rushing toward the spine. Oddly, more than adequate margins have been provided on the outer edges of each page - presumably for annotation. As such, the publisher might include a note in each succeeding edition suggesting how well this exemplifies the issue. That way there would be no need to fix the problem. I might even suggest the coinage of an near-eponymous term for this: "Normandizing".
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I recommend this book to anyone, but particularly to those who are in the business of building or design.
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