The invisible computer
In this book, Norman shows why the computer is so difficult to use and why this complexity is fundamental to its nature. The only answer, says Norman, is to start over again, to develop information appliances that fit people's needs and lives. To do this companies must change the way they develop products. They need to start with an understanding of people: user needs first, technology last - the opposite of how things are done now. Companies need a human-centered development process, even if it means reorganizing the entire company. This book shows why and how.
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- Along these design lines, I highly recommend Don Norman's "The Invisible Computer" https://a.co/d/7AnQMLW though his notions of mesh-networking and voice interaction illustrate the dated-ness of the book, but I think the idea of ambient interfaces with the smart-phone as "the hub" still holds promise.
- _The Myth of Certainty_ by Daniel Taylor
_Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing_ by Soren Kierkegaard
_The Invisible Computer_ by Donald Norman
_Death March_ by Edward Yourdon
_War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning_ by Chris Hedges
_What Do You Care What Other People Think?_ by Richard P. Feynman
- Feature addiction is real.
This post points to perverse economic incentives as being one possible cause, but I have also seen this happen in open-source projects. It's a matter of listening to the wrong people, in my view. User feedback is incredibly valuable, but when user feedback comes in the form of GitHub issues rather than careful testing and conversation, the team will inevitably find themselves building more and more and more for no real benefit.
I've quoted this before, but what Don Norman says in The Invisible Computer still applies:
"Don’t ask people what they want. Watch them and figure out their needs. If you ask, people usually focus on what they have and ask for it to be better: cheaper, faster, smaller. A good observer might discover that the task is unnecessary, that it is possible to restructure things or provide a new technology that eliminates the painstaking parts of their procedures. If you just follow what people ask for, you could end up making their lives even more complicated."
- Except most of these profound visions from Mossberg are things that have been discussed in the tech community for decades.
Don Norman wrote The Invisible Computer 19 years ago.
- IIRC, I read this (or something very similar) in Don Norman's book "The Invisible Computer".
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