Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles

By Don Norman

On Sale: May 21, 1993
Page Count: 224 pages
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN-13: 9780201622362

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The author of The Design of Everyday Things offers a hilarious look at the often cumbersome relationships between humans and machines

“An engaging work by a benign technocrat who has designs on our minds.”—Kirkus

From water faucets and airplane cockpits to the concept of “real time” and the future of memory, this wide-ranging tour through technology provides a new understanding of how the gadgets that surround us affect our lives. Donald Norman explores the plight of humans living in a world ruled by a technology that seems to exist for its own sake, oblivious to the needs of the people who use it. Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles is an intelligent, whimsical look at our love/hate relationship with machines, as well as a persuasive call for the humanization of modern design.

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Don Norman is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science and Psychology and founding director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego. He was an Apple Vice President, has been an advisor and board member for numerous companies, has received three lifetime achievement awards, and has three honorary degrees. His many books, including The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design, have been translated into over 20 languages. He lives in San Diego, California.

“Norman is concerned that engineers often market technology with little regard for the consumers who will have to interact with hardware as the product. Writing clearly with humor and arresting insights, Norman analyzes such diverse topics as refrigerators as message centers in the home and pilots who place empty coffee cups over certain switches to avoid cockpit errors.”
Library Journal
“It's coping with the technology of quotidian life that wears us down, of course. Norman (Cognitive Psychology/UC San Diego) reassures us that it's not our fault: It's design flaws…. Norman argues for logical relations between a stove's knobs and its burners (“affordance mapping”) and for the efforts a writer owes to readers….. An engaging work by a benign technocrat who has designs on our minds.”
Kirkus
What they’re saying about Donald Norman

“One of today’s most creative cognitive psychologists.” —Douglas R. Hofstadter, author of Gödel, Escher, Bach

“Psychologists accuse us of being out of touch with our feelings. Don Norman demonstrates that we aren’t even in touch with our hardware.”—Ralph Caplan, author of By Design

“The guru of workable technology.”—Newsweek

Don Norman

About the Author

Don Norman is a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, and holds graduate degrees in both engineering and psychology. His many books include Emotional Design, The Design of Future Things, and Living with Complexity, and The Design of Everyday Things. He lives in Silicon Valley, California.

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