The Design of Everyday Things.
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I’m reading NORMAN’s text on the subway while I’m going to work.
The Design of Everyday Things.
The text is a classic of his kind. At first, I was not too fond of the reading, or rather of the Norman writing style: too many examples for my tastes and his writing is dry. But Norman is such a nice person (and with a nice beard). I like his life and intellectual struggle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlQEoJaLQRA
I should have read this text many years ago, being a psychologist.
Luckily Norman came to me with another text,
Living with complexity (a review in Italian: 2011, Vivere con la complessità. TD Tecnologie Didattiche, 19 (2), pp. 130–131).
What I liked about “The Design of Everyday Things” is the book’s genesis, how and what led him to find the right path for his reflection. I think that looking and finding for it and following his intuition, it is his merit.
Then the term “design” is a beautiful word. Some colleagues I know appropriate it as if it were a territory in which they have the expertise. And obviously, they haven’t read Norman. For him, the design is in every action, in every interaction with the environment, the design belongs to everyone. We are, in some way, all experts, having a daily experience of it. I hope my colleagues adhere to the Norman call for a democratic, beautiful and functional design.
