The (Mis)Design of Everyday Things

//Comments

Tony G

Brian S

Patrick S

I have recently finished reading an excellent book entitled The Design of Everyday Things (DOET). It was very interesting to read and can be very enlightening to the everyday use of the objects in the world around us or there misuse/poor design. The book uses several running examples, such as doors and telephone systems, to constantly convey the point that when we humans fail to use an object properly, it is, more often than not, a problem with the design of the object. He uses lots of straight forward real world examples to help explain this point. Although the book is becoming a bit dated, the principles can still be applied today. 

Why do designers fail to account for the end user in the design process? This can easily be explained in a simple phrase: "It probably won an award." The things needed most to help the end user actually use the product are not typically thought of during the design process. The designers only want to appeal to their immediate market audience, which is typically not the people actually using the product. Large corporations buy products based on price, not ease of use and the result is not very welcomed by the people that have to actually use what they are purchasing. They reduce the price by making the products smaller, with less controls but many features. This translates to an overly complex product with an even more complex way to use it. 

An excellent example of this poor design stated in the book is the British Telecom Telephone (pg 20). The phone seems simple enough to use. It has a standard telephone key pad as well as a single extra button conveniently labeled "R" which is used to access all of the advanced features of the phone. The first time user of this phone might have enough knowledge of the telephone system in general to make a phone call but to be able to do anything else requires much learning and extensive reading of the manual. 

After finishing this book, I started to see the world through different eyes. I started to realize, "It's not my fault that I can't open the door, the designer didn't do his job properly." It's very interesting to look around at everything that I use and understand why it is easy or hard to use.

I would recommend this book to any product designer or any person that is in the business of creating products that are directly used by many people.