BIB_03: Norman, D. A. (2002). The design of everyday things (1st Basic paperback. ed.). New York: Basic Books.

Informed by psychology and industrial design, Norman's book explains the user's psychology when she/he uses everyday things from tea kettles to computers, and proposes user-centered design guidelines that can improve the product's usability and enhance user experience. Norman starts the book with an analysis of the psychology of everyday actions, and proposes a analytical model the "Seven Stages of Action" to explain how people do things. He points out that problems of use (usability issues) rise when the gulfs of execution and evaluation occur. Norman further explains how people learn about the world and how memory works. Based on these understandings, Norman uses the notion of "conceptual model" and related dimensions of "affordance," "mapping" and "constraint" to argue for a usability guideline that focuses on designing the correct conceptual model and attends to visibility. In the section that follows, Norman discusses the reasons for errors and how sensible design can reduce errors. Norman wraps the book up with a summary of the guidelines for good design.

Norman's book is very readable with ample examples. Although these examples are quite old--the book first published in 1988--they still are able to illustrate the intended points well. Norman's insightful understanding of design makes his theory applicable to a wide range of products. Precisely because of the very basic and fundamental understanding of design and usability, Norman's frameworks and models are still useful in the new technological context we are in today. I found the framework of the seven stages of action, the conceptual model, and especially the dimensions of affordance, mapping, and constraint productive frameworks for my research on Web 2.0 and cultural usability.