The Design of Everyday Things

Writer: Donald Norman
Genre: Cognitive Science

Why do most of the people (that includes me) walk into a cold room and increase the thermostat's temperature to the maximum with the expectation that the room would get heated quickly? We all have a mental model of the thermostat which makes us believe that doing so would heat the room faster than setting the temperature to a lesser but expected value. How many times have you fumbled with the faucets in washrooms wondering if to push them, turn them or just keep your hand under one? And what about those doors? Push them, pull them or slide them! Everyday scenarios, everyday frustrations, aren’t they?

Norman uses such simple and to-the-point use cases to explain the importance of design. The design of everyday things (DOET) previously called 'The Psychology of everyday things (POET)' is an interesting read especially because most of the explanations are so simple that you wonder why you didn’t think of it. My favourite is the gas burner one.....I have a 4 burner stove at home and it never occurred to me that the design could be simplified to match an easier mental model.

Lovely read and a review from Amazon best sums it - 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.

A personal copy is highly recommended.

A Sparrow Falls

Writer: Wilbur Smith

Genre: Fiction

The French war sees Sean Courtney in action again but this time he is a General. He befriends a young sniper named Mark Anders and immediately takes a liking to him.

After the war, Mark Anders comes home to find his grandfather dead and his property usurped by Dirk Courtney. He doubts if his grandfather actually dies while hunting as has been portrayed to him.

When he is attacked by unknown men he knows that there are people (read Dirk Courtney) who would like to stop him from seeking the truth. Mark, however decides to continue and soon becomes Sean Courtney's assistant. They together try to stop Dirk's plan of constructing a dam which will destroy the natural habitat of many living beings. 

Sean loses the election to Dirk and finds himself helpless against his own son. Mark finds a way to trap Dirk but when Dirk comes to know of the trap he kills Sean and Ruth before being killed himself by Mark. The romance between Mark and Sean's daughter, Storm is predictable and ends up being boring (well atleast for me!)

That finishes the first sequence in the Courtney novels. Personally the sequence didn’t live up to the expectations but can still be lapped by Smith fans.