HN Academy

There is also a Udacity course by Don Norman around this book. I haven't taken it yet but it is on my list.

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-the-design-of-everyd...

I've recently taken a Udacity course "Intro to the Design of Everyday Things"[0] and jotted down a preliminary summary[1].

Here are some of the tools they listed:

+ Hybrid paper/digital tools to animate paper pictures:

- https://popapp.in/

- https://www.flinto.com/

* Apple Keynote

* MS PowerPoint

* Google Presentation

* http://keynotopia.com/guides/

* https://balsamiq.com/

+ HTML5 prototypes:

- http://tumult.com/hype/

- http://www.adobe.com/products/edge-animate.html

- https://www.google.com/webdesigner/

+ Misc:

- http://hackdesign.com/

- http://www.usabilitycounts.com/2012/08/30/four-ways-to-break...

- http://52weeksofux.com/

- https://www.interaction-design.org/

[0]: https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-the-design-of-everyd...

[1]: https://github.com/jhadjar/Notes/blob/master/Design/Intro%20...

Design of everyday object is really great and I cannot recommend it enough.

Udacity also has a mooc that follows the book and is taught by the author

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-the-design-of-everyd...

About "The Design of Everyday Things", there is also a course on Udacity based on the book: https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-the-design-of-everyd...

I wish I'd known 20 years ago how important design was going to be. Getting my 10,000 hours of design isn't going to be easy. I started this course a few days ago on Udacity:

https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-the-design-of-everyd...

And I'm using this subredit to learn how to draw: http://www.reddit.com/r/ArtFundamentals

And Don Norman has a new (and free!) MOOC on Udacity on that very same topic: https://www.udacity.com/course/design101

I have the same problem with UI. I am more of a technical person but would like to get better at design and layout. When I visit some of HN members' web sites I am always amazed at the way they look: clean and polished. I just wish I could do that kind of stuff! I will take the Udacity MOOC for a start. Thanks to other members for their suggestions on this thread.

⬐ meerita

UI is pretty technical design. If you want to learn more about the aspect of it, the best thing you can do is learn design basics, typography, for example would make a big impact on your design work.

⬐ henrik_w

+1 for a short course. Much easier to fit in in a busy schedule.

⬐ mkaziz

And an at-your-own-pace course!

⬐ treerock

[aside]

What's going on with the Udacity website? I've tried disabling all script blockers and it still isn't working, half the links do nothing. Even getting what looks like AngularJS code showing on the page. e.g. {{hovered}}

[update]

Seems it doesn't play well with DoNotTrackMe addon.

⬐ aaimnr

There is another one, more thorough, on coursera: https://www.coursera.org/course/hci , also based partly on Norman's book. Is anyone able to compare them?

⬐ reledi

I'm taking notes for this course, if anyone wants to read them: https://gist.github.com/dideler/8018644

I covered lesson 1 tonight.

⬐ dannyking

Nice - thanks for sharing!

⬐ donquichotte

I've started reading the book. The self-promotion and anectotal evidence of bad design made it impossible for me to finish it. Nonetheless I'm looking forward to the course.

⬐ SloopJon

I read the book about fifteen years ago, during my Code Complete bibliography binge. I remember it every time I start the wrong burner on a stove.

After the Google-sponsored web game class, I'm a bit skeptical of Udacity's commercial tie-in classes. Loved the AI class that started it all, and really enjoyed Peter Norvig's Design of a Computer Program class, but the Google class? Not so much.

Not sure what to make of this class being only two weeks. I guess it's a relatively small investment, even if it ends up being an infomercial.

⬐ MaxGabriel

Seems like a really short course. Anyone know why?

(Their email says 8 hours; the website says 16)

⬐ mlchild

Just saw Don Norman speak and he said most MOOC courses are way too long and lose most of their students. Seemed like a reasonable design critique.

⬐ treerock

I wonder about the design choice of commencing a week before Christmas.

⬐ reledi

Not a terrible choice. Most people are free from school and work around this time. With the course being short, it should be doable during the holiday break.

⬐ mlchild

Mea culpa for the "ATM machine" error with "MOOC courses."

⬐ _neil

Don Norman looks impressively uncomfortable in his photo.

⬐ kukabynd

You are mistaken. His body language seems more like a guru/teacher appeal.

⬐ _neil

I'm sure you are right and I didn't mean any disrespect. Just a casual observation.

⬐ alex_marchant

Check out this post for previous discussion and hype about the course https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6101815

After taking an HCI course and reading The Design of Everyday Things, I also notice poorly designed things quite often.

BTW, there's a free course based off that book starting this fall: https://www.udacity.com/course/design101.

⬐ asafira

This might not be the best place to mention this, but here goes anyway: I started reading The Design of Everyday Things, but I've been disappointed so far. To be fair, I'm only 50 pages in, but I haven't read anything mind blowing in any way yet. The book so far has been a compendium of author's anecdotes regarding poorly designed things/systems/manuals/etc. I certainly agree with what he says, absolutely. At the same time though, it doesn't keep my attention because it just seems like story after story, no logical foundation that he's building for creating a well-designed product.

Here's to hoping it gets better!

⬐ colanderman

Have you gotten to affordances yet? I recall that being the major "foundational" takeaway for me (i.e., affordances, via their physical form, communicate to a user what actions can, cannot, must, or must not be taken).

⬐ AznHisoka

That and the Mythical Man Month were duds for me. I never understood why they were so highly regarded amongst engineers.

⬐ BillyMaize

I feel the same way about Code Complete. I tried to read it but just couldn't force myself to as much of it seemed obvious. Maybe back in the day it was as amazing as people say.

⬐ marcosdumay

They aren't duds. The problem is that they are so influential that every newcomer already knows whats they say, just by virtue of learning their trade after the books were written.

⬐ damncabbage

TV Tropes (!) of all places has a great explanation, applied to comedy: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny

⬐ 10dpd

Remember this was written in the eighties, Norman's discourse on mental models was transformative not just within the field of IT, but the entire field of psychology. Before psychologists thought people used logic to make inferences about the world, but after Normans work it became apparent that people developed detailed mental models on how the world works.

⬐ herdrick

It's on Udacity, which means it's probably going to be very interactive.