User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play

“Technology should become simpler over time. Then it should become simpler still, so that it disappears from notice.” We take it for granted - at least in consumer-grade products and services. Pampered by instant-gratification feedback loops, rushing through minimal interfaces, we are more and more accustomed to machines that “just work”. Cliff Huang and Robert Fabricant - with decades of user experience work under their belts - give us a fascinating story of how this idea of “user friendliness” was invented, how it evolved and what are the possible trends of the future. It is a journey through the most iconic events, companies and people defining the design field in the last hundred years.I have found the most revealing how ease of use of equipment came to prominence only recently, despite the obvious (in hindsight?) proofs how catastrophic a bad design can be - be it a bomber plane, lawn mower or nuclear power station. It is difficult for people to change beliefs, the notion of “human error” lingered for far too long. By the same token, new products have to build upon contemporary mental models; if they are too dissimilar then almost nobody will adopt them. Early cars experimented with tillers, as they were familiar to people with boat-piloting experience (and nobody had experience with automobiles). Sometimes a product is released ahead of its time, failing not necessarily of technical shortcomings but rather because nobody has experiences allowing to use it without friction, to recognize its metaphor.Another eye-opener - as technology evolves to be simpler to use, it becomes invisible. Ultimately, the whole environment will anticipate and seamlessly support the needs of customers. The forefront of such changes lies in companies which have total control of their environments - like Disney in its parks, or Carnival with cruise ships. There, customer journeys can be designed end-to-end, with every component - sensors, wall screens, personnel training - engineered and controlled by a single organisation. However, with projects of such scale, seamless experience is threatened by the inability of large organisations to operate under a common vision. Politics, feuds between departments, distrust between teams - all of that shows in the finished product as cracks in otherwise smooth experience. And once your customers notice the technology behind, the magic is gone.The book is filled with many such lessons, particularly revealing for readers not educated in the design field. Some reviewers claim that it falls short of giving enough detail on how exactly designers work and how companies differ in methodologies. That may be true, but the authors’ intent is clear - to describe a high-level overview of many elements comprising the design craft. And I cannot state enough how enjoyable is their story. Highly recommended.

This book is like your granny who can tell old times stories about nothing for hours connecting some weird dots that doesn't need to be connected.It feels like this book is work of a journalist who just forced to write something on each of those 350 pages.If you want a good book around user experience, keep searching.

Kuang and Fabricant’s book is a great overview of the history of design (both industrial and user interface) and provides a very optimistic outlook for the future. All the ideas are explained well and are placed in their societal and historical context. It sheds a light on how various design studios ended-up with their approaches to design and what their main influences were.It lacks, however, a more complete outline of design ideas and influences from Europe and the rest of the world, although the authors allude to some of those in some places. Bauhaus, German design and Dieter Rams, for example, had a bigger impact on the world than some of the other products and ideas that the authors spend time on (e.g. the Carnival Medallion). Perhaps that was not the point, but these products (and others…) had a lasting influence on design and how people expect things to work.

This is the most comprehensive review of the design process to date. Authors Kuang and Fabricant bring readers a fascinating, and very readable, history of how "User Friendly" became the concept that not only makes our lives easier, but was essential to saving lives. The authors also question the future of user-friendly design and what it portends for our dependency on ease-of-use without knowing the inner workings of the design itself. An amazing look at things around us that we have come to take for granted.

These book really hooked me in the way it tells of the fits and starts in the evolution of user centered design. To think that just 40 years ago we were metaphorically rubbing two sticks together in UX, even when it came to something as important as nuclear power.A must read for anyone in the field.

This is an interesting but ultimately disappointing book. I was very keen to learn what the authors had to say specifically about User friendly design. But their anecdotal research — which would be very interesting — was reported very briefly, almost cursorily. Their ideas on how designers should incorporate user friendly principles is, frankly, incoherent. Thirty years ago I wrote a book on customer satisfaction in which I discussed the importance of the ‘fit’ — or user friendliness— of the product. I was hoping this book would go beyond what I had discovered. Unfortunately if they have gained additional insights those insights are not available in the book as written. My suggestion: 1. Expand the anecdotes so we Reader’s can understand, for example, how researchers realized the need to change the shapes of different controls, or how Apple made products that were user friendly while Microsoft couldn’t. 2. Drop the MBA-speak: Tell your story and your ideas in simple English. You have an important message and I hate to see it getting lost. Regards

Fast & fascinating read. It's like practical philosophy. I went to summer art school at Otis Parsons when I was 17 in1979 every Monday, students had to bring in an object of their choice and critique it's design out loud in class. I rather never got out of the habit. This book has deepened my understanding.

"User design" has been going on for millennia, much of it through trial and error. This evolution still occurs with and without the Designer, although they may give us a more utilitarian toaster earlier. Ultimately, I did agree that there must be consideration of the user in product and system design, I wasn't yet sold that this was a specific science.

El libro lo entregaron super rápido. Me encanta que la cubierta tenga textura, es un diseño muy especial y detallado. Es una buena lectura si trabajas en UX o áreas afines del diseño. El lenguaje que utilizan no es demasiado especializado, así que es muy fácil de entender de que va.Súper recomendado!

Great book and a gorgeous cover!

Conceitos interessantes e uma boa discussão sobre design. O método de contar histórias para justificar os conceitos funciona bem também, porém com uma leitura um pouco cansativa mais ou menos no meio do livro. Ainda assim, é super recomendado para quem está estudando ou é profissional da área de design, preocupado com experiência, sendo de produto ou não.

A mi hija le encanto!

simplemente: es el mejor libro que puede leer en todo 2019. (Y no soy diseñador)