The Design of Everyday Things

The Design of Everyday Things

by Don Norman

Category: systemic-design

Year: 1988

Buy on Amazon

About This Book

Author: Don Norman
Category: systemic-design
Year: 1988 (Revised 2013)
Purchase: Amazon

Key Insights

Affordances and Signifiers

The fundamentals of my Interaction Design specialty.

Practical Applications

Ad Legibility

Making reward effort and value clear through use rather than instruction.

How It Shaped My Work

Norman’s concepts of affordances and signifiers are the foundation of my Interaction Design specialty. In our ad products, we make reward effort and value clear through design rather than instruction, ensuring users understand what they’re getting without reading explanations. This is central to how we design interaction systems for ads and build design system components.