Respecting the User Experience

Back in 2017, I read the fantastic book The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. The book's core discussion is on product design that is effortlessly usable. Did you know that some door handles are "designed to pull" while others are "designed to push"?

I didn't, and it's something discussed in the aforementioned book. It's a solution to something mundane and ordinary—how to make door-opening a more efficient operation—yet it's also intriguing due to the prolific nature of opening doors in our everyday lives. It's frustrating and kind of embarassing when I try to push open a door that's "pull-only." So I'm glad when I encounter one that has a transparent and obvious design, and grateful that usability exists as a professional field.

Operating software isn't much different. We're clicking buttons, typing inputs, and searching for things on a screen. Simple—mundane even—but oh-so-important. The difference betweeen navigating through and operating in these capacities—inside an app that is optimized for user experience, and one that is not—is like day and night. No one wants to use an app that frustrates them.

So, I really try to design software I am working on for people. These people are either users, or developers and other colleagues I am working with that have to read or test the code I write.

I created a few UX projects after reading The Design of Everyday Things and some other books on usability. Please find those projects here.