The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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9:31am on Sunday, 4th February, 2024:
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For many years, people have told me I ought to read Don Norman's The Design of Everyday Things, so I finally got around to doing so.
Towards the end of the book, Norman argues that over time, durable products become more and more feature-heavy. If you have a perfectly serviceable old version of something, why would you buy a new version of it? Manufacturers go out of business if you don't buy new versions, so they add more and more features to persuade you that your version is outdated and should be replaced. Not all of these additions are necessary or even desirable and even if they are, the product as a whole becomes bloated.
I bought the third edition of the book. It's twice as long as it needed to be.
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