Book reviews
Title: The Design of Everyday Things
Author: Donald A. Norman
Publisher: Currency-Doubleday
Year: 1988, 2nd edition
ISBN: 0385267746
I would recommend this book to be read in product design classes everywhere were it not for the fact that soon the students in those classes will no longer be familiar with the specific technologies discussed. I can only imagine the 10 year old I know now scratching his head when he gets to college trying to imagine a "typical computer" where the "screen is either completely blank or contains noninformative symbols or words" and "isn't it true that one wrong keystroke can blow up the machine? Or destroy valuable data?"
The book was interesting for two main reasons, 1) as evidence of how much has changed and stayed the same in the world of consumer products, and 2) as a discussion of how to design well.
While the discussion about doors, light switches, stove burners, and faucets is still completely relevant, the discussion of VCRs, computers, telephones, and other electronic devices is distinctly dated. Some interesting points to read after 25 years of developing technology were: one should not have to know how to program in order to use a computer, and after automatic faucets are more common, people will be less confused by them.
The main thrust of the design argument is that everyday things should be so easy to use you don't have to think about them. Controls should be intuitive or standardized. Hiding controls may make the tool more sleek-looking, but has the unfortunate side-effect of making the tool difficult to use and thus making the user feel like an idiot.
Title: Shelter: Where Harvard Meets the Homeless
Author: Scott Seider
Publisher: Continuum
Year: 2010
ISBN: 9781441185617
This book is about the Harvard Square homeless shelter, which is the only entirely student run shelter in the US. I was hoping that the book would be more about homelessness, but Seider is more interested in adolescent/young adult development, and so he focused on the Harvard students involved in the shelter instead.
The book is based on 73 interviews with people involved in the shelter and Seider seems to spend much of the book fitting the interviews into the grand theory of how young people develop that was created by a psychologist named Erik Erikson in the 1960s. He does not spend any energy challenging Erikson's assertions.
The thrust of what he says about the Harvard shelter is that 1) the students provide an interested and un-jaded ear to the people who stay there 2) the students are more flexible and ready to try new things than an adult-run organization 3) having the future leaders of America talking to the homeless every week can only be a good thing for tackling the problem of homelessness.
He also spent three chapters on what the students get out of running an organization on their own.
Author: Donald A. Norman
Publisher: Currency-Doubleday
Year: 1988, 2nd edition
ISBN: 0385267746
I would recommend this book to be read in product design classes everywhere were it not for the fact that soon the students in those classes will no longer be familiar with the specific technologies discussed. I can only imagine the 10 year old I know now scratching his head when he gets to college trying to imagine a "typical computer" where the "screen is either completely blank or contains noninformative symbols or words" and "isn't it true that one wrong keystroke can blow up the machine? Or destroy valuable data?"
The book was interesting for two main reasons, 1) as evidence of how much has changed and stayed the same in the world of consumer products, and 2) as a discussion of how to design well.
While the discussion about doors, light switches, stove burners, and faucets is still completely relevant, the discussion of VCRs, computers, telephones, and other electronic devices is distinctly dated. Some interesting points to read after 25 years of developing technology were: one should not have to know how to program in order to use a computer, and after automatic faucets are more common, people will be less confused by them.
The main thrust of the design argument is that everyday things should be so easy to use you don't have to think about them. Controls should be intuitive or standardized. Hiding controls may make the tool more sleek-looking, but has the unfortunate side-effect of making the tool difficult to use and thus making the user feel like an idiot.
Title: Shelter: Where Harvard Meets the Homeless
Author: Scott Seider
Publisher: Continuum
Year: 2010
ISBN: 9781441185617
This book is about the Harvard Square homeless shelter, which is the only entirely student run shelter in the US. I was hoping that the book would be more about homelessness, but Seider is more interested in adolescent/young adult development, and so he focused on the Harvard students involved in the shelter instead.
The book is based on 73 interviews with people involved in the shelter and Seider seems to spend much of the book fitting the interviews into the grand theory of how young people develop that was created by a psychologist named Erik Erikson in the 1960s. He does not spend any energy challenging Erikson's assertions.
The thrust of what he says about the Harvard shelter is that 1) the students provide an interested and un-jaded ear to the people who stay there 2) the students are more flexible and ready to try new things than an adult-run organization 3) having the future leaders of America talking to the homeless every week can only be a good thing for tackling the problem of homelessness.
He also spent three chapters on what the students get out of running an organization on their own.