Anyone who designs anything to be used by humans–from physical objects to computer programs to conceptual tools–must read this book, and it is an equally tremendous read for anyone who has to use anything created by another human. It could forever change how you experience and interact with your physical surroundings, open your eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design, and raise your expectations about how things should be designed.

Even though the book was first published in 1988 and so focuses more on the design of physical things like water faucets, doors and clocks, the ideas presented are directly applicable today in the design of software interfaces and websites. Indeed, as Norman points out, they are even more applicable because the digital interfaces gives us a lot more freedom to work with.

The book was originally titled “The Psychology of Everyday Things”, with the word ‘psychology’ later swapped for ‘design’. This gives us a first clue about what the book is really about. I think both titles are equally applicable because Norman goes into both, the theory of how people behave when working with everyday objects and the practice of making use of these findings by giving us a list of guidelines to follow.