How to design interfaces for normal people, not for programmers.

This is the book that introduced me to interaction design, and helped me realize that this is what I wanted to do instead of programming. I recommend it because more programmers and their managers need to understand that, whether they are conscious of it or not, they are doing design work, and even if they have the best intentions, it's not their area of expertise. 

Only after writing code since 1985 do I agree 100% with this book. Throughout my life I would write
code and design as I go and keep the design in my head. Everything took longer to code and work.

Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

09/17/2012: The author's incessant whining makes this book hard to read at a pace faster than half a page a week. I wish it was a terrible book so I could stop reading it. Finished 04/08/2013: Thanks ... Read full review

Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

Portions of the book are an interesting read, especially the ones dealing with interaction design. The engineering methodology ones were less valuable to me. Read full review

Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

A little dated, but love the concepts of user based design. Also, more evidence that software is just hard. Read full review

Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

I have a really hard time rating this one. On the one hand it talks about Goal Driven, User-Centred design which is still deeply neglected and would mark a step change in user interaction and the ease ... Read full review

Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

This book is great. There are many more 'advanced' foundations used at this point for designing products (especially software), but this is a great way to start thinking about process. This book isn't ... Read full review

Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

A little too negative for my taste - pretty much bashes all programmers as incompetent at usability design, without much more than platitudes about what to do in response. At least as far as I got until I stopped reading, anyway. Catchy title though! Read full review

Review: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

What do you get when you cross a computer with an alarm clock? A car? An airplace? In all cases, the answer is a computer. Alarm clocks, cars and airplanes have evolved their own user interfaces over ... Read full review