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The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things
The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things

The Thoughtless Design of Everyday Things

DESIGN

320 Pages, 6 x 9

Formats: Trade Paper, EPUB

Trade Paper, $37.95 (US $37.95) (CA $49.95)

Publication Date: February 2021

ISBN 9781604271782

Rights: US, CA & AU

J. Ross Publishing (Feb 2021)

eBook

eBook Editions Available

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Price: $37.95
 
 

Overview

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 150 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. 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.

Reviews

"Karl Wiegers has written a delightful and practical book that challenges how we think about designing products. He offers many tips regarding how to do thoughtful design and design mistakes to avoid, with loads of relatable real-world examples. You'll learn something about future product design and probably be more annoyed by those who haven't." —Joy Beatty, Vice President at Seilevel

"Interesting and insightful, I found it hard to put this book down; I just wanted to turn the page and see what came next. Anyone who designs items for real-world use—software, machines, medical instruments, homes, appliances, and the like—will find this book immensely valuable." —Norman L. Kerth, software engineer and author of Project Retrospectives

"Karl calls out many of the egregious design errors that we've all encountered, drawing on examples from the kitchen, the car, the computer, and many other sources. Then he takes it further, using these 'thoughtless design' examples to illuminate a specific design principle the product designer should have followed." —Meilir Page-Jones, author of The Practical Guide to Structured Systems Design

"This might be the most depressing book you'll read if, like me, you appreciate it when the products you use are well designed. On the other hand, it just might be the most entertaining read when you see the examples of calamitously bad products. Karl has put together here the most alarming, yet amusing chamber of horrors of poorly, thoughtlessly designed products. But it is not all on the dark side. Karl also brings you wonderful insights on design, design principles, how good design comes about, and how it makes so much difference to everybody's equilibrium." —James Robertson, The Atlantic Systems Guild

Author Biography

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, and Creating a Software Engineering Culture. 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.