Norman is brilliant, but is The Design Of Everyday Things still relevant?

When I first mentioned buying The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman, I knew it was a well-respected classic for those in user experience design. Amber – a friend who designs Technical Poet – pointed out she did not enjoy it, in fact, because the examples related to engineering physical products such as tables, light switches, and tea kettles. I argued that the principles could be applied anywhere, and it was fascinating to truly understand cognitive theory.

But I think she was right after all.

Sure the theory is sound, and it is absolutely a great read about human behaviour and how to match that behaviour effectively. In terms of studying cognition, Norman’s book cannot be denied as a classic. The concepts could be applicable anywhere, and I bet it’s a great text for university studies.

But for me? In the world of web design and technical documentation for software? The examples from engineering are so far removed, and the theory is so distant from what I want to do, that there are more modern books worth reading first.

I’ve come home with print versions of Designing The Moment by Hoekman, and Designing For The Social Web by Porter, both published by New Riders. Recently I saw someone point out that user experience design will be only taken seriously when those who do it actually have done the work. The person explained that just as in other disciplines, the theory needs to be applied to be proven as worthwhile. Actually integrating UX concepts – both within web sites and software interfaces – is an idea that is perhaps still in its infancy. Norman’s fascinating book is mature, thoughtful, but not as applicable to modern design.

Designing The Moment is subtitled “web interface design concepts in action”, and is literally several examples of real design decisions and a discussion of how they were developed with user experience in mind. Designing For The Social Web does something interesting; it recognizes the power of social marketing, yet focuses not on ROI, but on the users themselves. Designing Web Navigation is another one that discusses human behaviour and how we process human-computer experiences. Yes, we want to learn how people think, we want to know how they use the web, how they navigate, and what brings them back, but we want to do it by valuing the customers. Not just focusing on sales numbers and profits. These three are undeniably about modern design though; not engineering.

While I am absolutely fascinated by human-computer interaction and cognitive theory, and Norman is clearly an expert, I have to admit there is a limit to the time I can spend. Time is money. Money buys food. Food is eaten by my kids.

Ultimately, I don’t have the time for theory that needs a lot of processing to be applicable here and now. While I would love to have the time to read Norman’s The Design Of Everyday Things along with so many other HCI related books, there are just more practical modern books out there relating to web and interface design.