The Design of Everyday Things

Starting with the beginning chapter of this book I was a bit skeptical.

"When you have trouble with things--whether it's figuring out whether to push or pull a door...it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself: blame the designer."  

Personally, I can understand the occasional mishap where you pull where you should push, but to make a general assumption like "When you have trouble with things...blame the designer" is a bit drastic.  There will always be at least a small learning curve for every device including doorknobs and light switches.  There will always be someone distracted enough to not make it through that learning curve, so there will always be someone on which blame can be attributed.

As for the rest of the book, the author brought up very interesting aspects of the design of everyday things and he achieved his goal that I will not see the design of everyday things the same way.  However, I don't believe he needed to be so verbose about it.  I appreciated the thought that went into the psychology behind making mistakes, but I felt like the first third of the book could have been condensed into 2 pages.

Overall, I did enjoy this book despite its verboseness. Like I said, the author did accomplish the goals he set forth in the beginning.  I definitely see design a little differently and will probably stop to think about optimal design of an object before trying to understand its functions completely.