Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Why we don't really want simplicity, and how we can learn to live with complexity.

If only today's technology were simpler! It's the universal lament, but it's wrong. In this provocative and informative book, Don Norman writes that the complexity of our technology must mirror the complexity and richness of our lives. It's not complexity that's the problem, it's bad design. Bad design complicates things unnecessarily and confuses us. Good design can tame complexity.

Norman gives us a crash course in the virtues of complexity. Designers have to produce things that tame complexity. But we too have to do our part: we have to take the time to learn the structure and practice the skills. This is how we mastered reading and writing, driving a car, and playing sports, and this is how we can master our complex tools.

Complexity is good. Simplicity is misleading. The good life is complex, rich, and rewarding -- but only if it is understandable, sensible, and meaningful.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Books (p. vii)
• 1 Living with Complexity: Why Complexity is Necessary (p. 1)
• 2 Simplicity Is in the Mind (p. 32)
• 3 How Simple Things Can Complicate Our Lives (p. 62)
• 4 Social Signifiers (p. 88)
• 5 Design in Support of People (p. 110)
• 6 Systems and Services (p. 142)
• 7 The Design of Waits (p. 182)
• 8 Managing Complexity A Partnership (p. 220)
• 9 The Challenge (p. 253)
• Notes (p. 267)
• References (p. 275)
• Acknowledgments (p. 285)
• Index (p. 287)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Psychology, economics, philosophy, and general wisdom combine to make Living with Complexity by Norman, a noted designer, an interesting read. Complexity, as well as simplicity, is like beauty--it is in the eye of the beholder. However, designers do not always keep this in mind. Complexity does indeed carry with it greater opportunities for problems to arise, but this need not be the result. Well-manufactured items that perform without breaking will avoid most of the technical problems to which Norman refers. Late in the text, he discusses the difficulties with making a simplified cell phone and bringing it to market. The issues he raises are not of complexity, but rather capitalist issues of how markets work. While the economy is certainly a model of complexity, in this case, the difficulties are easy to understand; in other words, they are rather simple. If a company were to think a bit more long term, one can easily see that the phone could indeed exist. This book is worthwhile for bringing the subject of complexity versus simplicity to readers' attention, and Norman certainly has given it a great deal of careful thought. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates, two-year technical program students, and general readers. B. Mitchell Gibbs College of Boston

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Business Week has named Don Norman as one of the world's most influential designers. He has been both a professor and an executive: he was Vice President of Advanced Technology at Apple; his company, the Nielsen Norman Group, helps companies produce human-centered products and services; he has been on the faculty at Harvard, the University of California, San Diego, Northwestern University, and KAIST, in South Korea. He is the author of many books, including The Design of Everyday Things , The Invisible Computer (MIT Press, 1998), Emotional Design , and The Design of Future Things .