The Design of Everyday Things

The Way Things Don’t Work

Some days, it seems, the amazing conveniences that are supposed to ease life’s burdens conspire to befuddle you instead. When your digital alarm clock buzzes, you reach over and tap what you think is the snooze button. In fact, it’s the on-off switch. Two hours later, you wake up (again), get into the shower and turn on the water. But you never figured out that fancy all-in-one tap and end up scalded. In the kitchen, you try to boil water for tea but spend an extra minute guessing which of the six knobs above the oven will ignite the right-front burner. In the car you almost go into a ditch fiddling with the barely visible, tiny buttons on the radio. Even the entrance to your office building seems to bear a grudge. You pull the door handle without effect, continuing to yank on it until you notice that little inscription on the doorframe: “PUSH.”

If you’ve experienced these sorts of frustrations, take comfort: Such adversities are common. Even MIT-trained engineers have trouble programming digital watches, figuring out which light switch controls which lamp and adjusting the temperature in a refrigerator. It’s not so much that people can’t ...