
New Course: The Design of Everyday Things - dpatru
http://blog.udacity.com/2013/07/new-course-design-of-everyday-things.html
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millerm
The "Design of Everyday Things" is probably one of the best books I have ever
read on design. It's poignant for any designer of anything a human interacts
with. Even though this book doesn't touch computer interaction it's completely
relevant. Bonus: everyone you know who reads this book, or takes this course,
will annoy you a little with the overuse of their wonderful new word
"affordance". :-)

~~~
andrewcooke
you're not the only one here, so please excuse me - this isn't a personal
attack - but what does "poignant" mean in american english these days?

as an english english speaker, it's associated with regret, sadness, etc. yet
i've seen it used here multiple times to mean something completely different.
what?

~~~
nsmartt
This isn't snark. I legitimately tried explaining in my own words. I wasn't
satisfied, so:
[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/poignant](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/poignant)

~~~
andrewcooke
hmm.
[http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/poignant?q=...](http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/poignant?q=poignant)
(also my dead-tree concise oxford, with a longer entry, doesn't have anything
that's not emotionally affected, one way or another).

i suspect it's a cultural variation.

~~~
nsmartt
As mentioned by one of the other replies, it comes from "to prick" in Old
French, so the usage you're seeing—Profoundly moving; touching—seems to align
with that fairly well, at a glance.

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_0nac
In case the name doesn't ring a bell, The Design of Everyday Things is an
extremely readable introduction to usability, and an absolute classic in its
field:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things)

You'll never look a door the same way again... particularly if it has a handle
but still expects to be pushed open.

~~~
adam12
Handles help when you want to close the door. I get your point though.

~~~
hack_edu
Actually, the points are about push/pull doors and the choice of fixtures
placed as affordances to suggest the appropriate action by the user.

~~~
anigbrowl
We know that. The GP is pointing out a secondary purpose that is often
overlooked. Automatic door closers are subject to failure, and when they're
inoperative then having a handle is a good thing. Commercial building owners
also like handles because they can be chained shut easily if the tenant stops
paying rent, even if the tenant has changed the locks.

This is not to dispute the (great) value of the book, but to point out that
there's often more than one use case.

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kjhughes
The quality of Udacity courses combined with an updated "Design of Everyday
Things" plus Don Norman's direct involvement makes this course sound very
attractive. The Udacity "Introduction to Computer Science" course by David
Evans, by the way, is excellent. It is the one that I chose for by sons to
take online this summer. I liked the balance it provided between pragmatic
programming (Python exercises completed and evaluated in-browser) and CS
fundamentals (BNF introduced in first lesson, for example). This new design
course may have to be next on their list.

~~~
michaelrbock
I totally agree -- the quality of Udacity courses is the best of any of the
online learning options (paid or free). Every time a non-CS friend asks me
where to start learning to code online I point them to Udacity's CS 101 (over
Codecademy or Coursera).

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ThomPete
I don't understand why you would want to take a course with that book. What on
earth do people expect to get out of that they can't get from reading the
book?

Don't get me wrong, it's a great book, but it's popular because it's easy to
understand, not because it necessarily contains actionably insights or complex
issues that require a course to unveil.

~~~
Aldo_MX
From the preface of the 2013 edition of the book:
[http://www.jnd.org/books/design-of-everyday-things-
revised.h...](http://www.jnd.org/books/design-of-everyday-things-revised.html)

"When I started, I assumed that the basic principles were still true, so all I
needed to do was update the examples. But in the end, I rewrote everything."

"When I wrote the original book I was an academic researcher. Today, I have
been an industry executive (Apple, HP, and some startups), a consultant to
numerous companies, and a board member of companies. I had to include my
learnings from these experiences."

"Finally, one important component of the original edition was its brevity. The
book could be read quickly as a basic, general introduction. I kept that
feature unchanged. I tried to delete as much as I added to keep the total size
about the same. The book is meant to be an introduction: advanced discussions
of the topics, as well as a large number of important, but more advanced,
topics have been left out to maintain the compactness."

Although these portions were taken from the new book I expect to gain even
more insight from this course.

~~~
ThomPete
I fail to see how that would happen, but each to his own :)

~~~
sp332
When you're just writing, it's hard to tell where the audience will get
confused, or grasp a concept quickly and you can move on (or risk boring
them). If a lecturer can interact with an audience, he's more likely to be
clear.

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maaaats
It's so weird seeing prices on courses, coming from Europe. With that said,
I've taken a course heavily based on this book. It is mandatory for all comp.
sci. students at my Uni. Many didn't like it, being to "soft" when they wanted
to hack, and complaining that "most of it is sooo obvious". And yes, it may be
obvious when spelled out, but far too often overlooked and forgotten. I quite
liked it.

~~~
Zolomon
Which university did you study at?

~~~
maaaats
NTNU, Norway

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msvan
It's interesting how many design links pop up here. I came here with a
technical background and developed an interest for entrepreneurship reading
HN, and I think that in the same way a design interest develops in those who
are already sold on the idea of doing a startup. It'll be interesting to see
what collective interest will develop here after design has become a core part
of the "HN mentality".

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lovskogen
Don Norman has just released a new version of this book – seems like a smart
move to do a course.

~~~
Kronopath
And it's about time for a new version too. I've been reading through the older
version of it (2002) and was talking to family about some of the anachronisms
of the book - such as Norman remarking at how much easier videotapes are to
use compared to film reels, and ending off by saying "but it doesn't matter,
because soon there will be no film, only videotapes". I remarked that many
examples in this book would be incomprehensible to 20-year-olds ten years from
now, who've never dealt with technologies like a VCR or the button-covered
phones of the 80s and 90s.

All in all, though, highly recommended.

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swamp40
Another great quote from the book:

 _The same technology that simplifies life by providing more functions in each
device also complicates life by making the device harder to learn, harder to
use. This is the paradox of technology.

The paradox of technology should never be used as an excuse for poor design._

~ The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

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drcube
I've never read this book but of course now I have to.

I'll suggest reading Henry Petroski's stuff, too. "The Evolution of Useful
Things", "The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance", and "To Engineer
is Human" all make the case that the design of things around us are shaped
less by insight and more by evolution, incrementally building on the mistakes
of the past.

If "The Design of Everyday Things" is half as interesting as Petroski's books,
I can't wait to read it.

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lnanek2
Don't bother trying to sign up, after they get you to make an account they
tell you: > The Design of Everyday Things > We’re still making this course but
we'll let you know when it's ready!

Pretty annoying it gave me the option of Google/Facebook login, then made me
fill out information anyway. The whole reason I picked Google to login is
because I don't want to fill out a registration form for site number 1000.

~~~
markdown
So you're telling people they shouldn't sign up because the course isn't
available right this instant?

FYI, it says right there on the page:

> Design of Everyday Things will consist of four courses that are tentatively
> scheduled to start in Fall 2013.

> If you're interested in enrolling, please click the orange “Add to My
> Courses” button on this page and we'll be in touch as more details are
> available.

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mathattack
I used to give this book away to all my employees who were involved in GUI
design. It is great about respecting and understanding your users, even if on
the surface it's about door handles.

I wonder how this will play into Udacity, as I view it more as a platform for
short quizes and testing via code. This is more a book on conceptual
understanding.

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sc00ter
Wonderful book, but if Norman is updating it, I really hope he drops the
'POET' backronym. It was contrived and awkward, and it's repeated inclusion
felt seemed more like a slight to the publisher who changed the name from
Psychology Of Everyday Things to its more approachable name.

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jfb
It will be interesting to see how the course is designed, given that nobody
has yet to really figure out the design and pedagogy of online teaching. It'd
probably be worth checking this out.

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krmmalik
Has anyone had any luck signing into the udacity course on their ipad using
either facebook or google login? My attempts keep resulting in a blank white
screen.

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cgag
It's strangely hard to do, but I'll go ahead and admit I found the first
couple chapters incredibly dull and put this book down.

