DesignThe Design of Everyday ThingsDon Norman
Editorial guide•English edition
The Design of Everyday Things
A foundation for human-centered design focused on affordances, feedback, mappings, constraints and designing for error.
Why it matters
When people repeatedly make the same mistake, the interface or system may be teaching the wrong action.
02
Core ideas
What is worth remembering after you close the page
01
Visibility guides action
People should be able to see what actions are possible and what state the system is in.
02
Feedback closes the loop
After an action, the system should make the result clear quickly.
03
Design for error
Good systems prevent common mistakes and make recovery cheap when they still occur.
03
Turn it into action
Three things to test today
- 1
Watch one new user attempt a core task without explanation.
- 2
Add feedback to one action whose result is ambiguous.
- 3
Redesign one common error so it is impossible or easily reversible.
This guide explains the book's ideas in independent wording and does not reproduce the original structure or text. Read the original for the full argument, examples and context.