User Friendly

User Friendly

How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way We Live, Work & Play

Summary


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'A tour de force, an engrossing fusion of scholarly research, professional experience and revelations from intrepid firsthand reporting' -- New York Times

USER FRIENDLY is a must-read for anyone who loves well-designed products-and for the innovators aspiring to make them.

It seems like magic when some new gadget seems to know what we want before we know ourselves. But why does some design feel intrinsically good, and why do some designs last forever, while others disappear? User Friendly guides readers through the hidden rules governing how design shapes our behaviour, told through fascinating stories such as what the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island reveals about the logic of the smartphone; how the pressures of the Great Depression and World War II created our faith in social progress through better product design; and how a failed vision for Disney World yielded a new paradigm for designed experience.

Reviews

  • A tour de force, an engrossing fusion of scholarly research, professional experience and revelations from intrepid firsthand reporting
    New York Times

About the authors

Cliff Kuang

Cliff Kuang is a UX designer and an award-winning journalist. He was previously the design editor at Wired and Fast Company, where he has edited or written over 7,000 articles on design. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, and The Economist.
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Robert Fabricant

Robert Fabricant is a co-founder of Dalberg’s Design Impact Group and former Vice President of Creative for Frog Design. He has won numerous design awards and has written and spoken widely on design and social impact, for outlets including the Harvard Business Review and SXSW.
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