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Book Summary
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You have to know why people behave as they do—and design around their foibles and limitations, rather than some ideal.
User Friendly
In User Friendly, Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant reveal the untold story of a paradigm that quietly rules our modern lives: the assumption that machines should anticipate what we need. Spanning over a century of sweeping changes, from women’s rights to the Great Depression to World War II to the rise of the digital era, this book unpacks the ways in which the world has been―and continues to be―remade according to the principles of the once-obscure discipline of user-experience design.
In this essential text, Kuang and Fabricant map the hidden rules of the designed world and shed light on how those rules have caused our world to change―an underappreciated but essential history that’s pieced together for the first time. Combining the expertise and insight of a leading journalist and a pioneering designer, User Friendly provides a definitive, thoughtful, and practical perspective on a topic that has rapidly gone from arcane to urgent to inescapable. In User Friendly, Kuang and Fabricant tell the whole story for the first time―and you’ll never interact with technology the same way again.
User Friendly is a timely call for a new design philosophy for the digital age to embrace UX and make computers more user friendly. Released in late 2019, there has been a lot of hype around this book—co-author Cliff Kuang is not only a seasoned UX designer, but an award-winning tech journalist and a fantastic writer. User Friendly is an essential and modern primer on how design is shaping our behaviour, thinking, and world.
More than a reference book for designers, User Friendly is told through an interesting historical lense that reads more like a novel. It maps the secret rules of the designed world and explains how these rules have changed society. It's a fascinating blend of research, professional design experience and common sense real-life examples that exposes the underappreciated history of design—it will change how you think and approach user experience design and the world around you.
You have to know why people behave as they do—and design around their foibles and limitations, rather than some ideal.
