The Design of Future Things

by Don Norman

Overview

Donald A. Norman, a popular design consultant to car manufacturers, computer companies, and other industrial and design outfits, has seen the future and is worried. In this long-awaited follow-up to The Design of Everyday Things, he points out what's going wrong with the wave of products just coming on the market and some that are on drawing boards everywhere-from "smart" cars and homes that seek to anticipate a user's every need, to the latest automatic navigational systems. Norman builds on this critique to offer a consumer-oriented theory of natural human-machine interaction that can be put into practice by the engineers and industrial designers of tomorrow's thinking machines. This is a consumer-oriented look at the perils and promise of the smart objects of the future, and a cautionary tale for designers of these objects-many of which are already in use or development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465002283
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	05/12/2009
Edition description:	First Trade Paper Edition
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,030,230
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Don Norman is a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, and holds graduate degrees in both engineering and psychology. His many books include Emotional Design, The Design of Future Things, and Living with Complexity. He lives in Silicon Valley, California.

Editorial Reviews

This is the sequel to The Design of Everyday Things that Donald Norman's fans have been eagerly anticipating. The Design of Future Things serves a double purpose. It heralds mind-boggling advances in "smart" technology, but it also sounds a cautionary critique of gizmos that can run amuck like sorcerer's apprentices. Fun futurism for techies and techies in training.