The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems vs The Design of Everyday Things
When comparing The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems vs The Design of Everyday Things, the Slant community recommends The Design of Everyday Things for most people. In the question“What are the most influential books every programmer should read?” The Design of Everyday Things is ranked 3rd while The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems is ranked 19th. The most important reason people chose The Design of Everyday Things is:
This book isn't focused on recent trends or properties specific to a certain field, and thus applies to all design. It provides a broad view and allows focusing on the fundamental goals of the user experience, rather than being limited in scope.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Looks at the psychology behind interaction design
The author takes an in depth look at "cognitive engineering" and applying it to software design (ex. How users form habits when interacting with software).
Pro Transcendental principles
This book isn't focused on recent trends or properties specific to a certain field, and thus applies to all design. It provides a broad view and allows focusing on the fundamental goals of the user experience, rather than being limited in scope.
Pro Focused on the user
Whatever that's being designed, for whatever purpose, it always has the same goal of being used by someone. This book is focused on that interaction and on why users make mistakes. These principles still apply directly to web design, when design leads users to make mistakes, it will ultimately drive users away.
Cons
Con The point is not often clear
The Human Interface can be a confusing read for a variety of reasons.
The author is frequently referencing one of his projects, Canon Cat, even when there is no beneficial/relevant reason to do so.
There are some contradictions throughout the book, and plenty of negativity towards the studies he mentions (however, he does not often use studies to back up his own claims).
The book does not have illustrations or screenshots, making it difficult to follow at times.
Con Quite dated
Examples are quite old, as are the illustrations.
Con A lot to read
It's quite a long read, there is a lot of material to be covered, if you compare it to similar but more concise books, like The Non-Designer's Design Book.
Con Not specifically for web design
This book challenges the reader to think about the design of all objects, and their user-friendliness/usability. It is not specifically targeted towards web designers, but will help web designers think in a way that benefits users.