{"product_id":"9780374279752","title":"User Friendly : How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eUser Friendly\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Cliff Kuang, Robert Fabricant\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAMAZON BEST BOOKS OF 2019 PICK\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFORTUNE \u003c\/i\u003eWRITERS AND EDITORS' RECOMMENDED BOOKS OF 2019 PICK\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eUser\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e Friendly \u003c\/i\u003eis a tour de force, an engrossing fusion of scholarly research, professional experience and revelations from intrepid firsthand reporting.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eEDWARD TENNER\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eUser Friendly\u003c\/i\u003e, Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant reveal the untold story of a paradigm that quietly rules our modern lives: the assumption that machines should anticipate what we need. Spanning over a century of sweeping changes, from women’s rights to the Great Depression to World War II to the rise of the digital era, this book unpacks the ways in which the world has been—and continues to be—remade according to the principles of the once-obscure discipline of user-experience design.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this essential text, Kuang and Fabricant map the hidden rules of the designed world and shed light on how those rules have caused our world to change—an underappreciated but essential history that’s pieced together for the first time. Combining the expertise and insight of a leading journalist and a pioneering designer, \u003ci\u003eUser Friendly\u003c\/i\u003e provides a definitive, thoughtful, and practical perspective on a topic that has rapidly gone from arcane to urgent to inescapable. In \u003ci\u003eUser Friendly\u003c\/i\u003e, Kuang and Fabricant tell the whole story for the first time—and you’ll never interact with technology the same way again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[An] engrossing history of how the design of commercial products and technological innovations came to be singularly focused on the user experience . . . [A]n erudite and insightful exploration of a revolution in human thinking that most people have probably never considered.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A readable, instructive study of the role of design in making our lives easier to live . . . Of a piece with the work of Henry Petroski or Donald Norman, Kuang and Fabricant’s book serves up plenty of useful examples and offers a few rules for would-be designers, the very first of which is 'start with the user.' A book that belongs on every designer’s shelf—and that consumers of design will enjoy, too.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eUser Friendly \u003c\/i\u003eweaves a stirring and unexpected story of how the machine age gave way to the iPhone era. Monolithic tools of war became chipper assistants, but at a price. Passionate and poised, Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant show us how friendliness mapped a new root structure for the simmering chaos of the recent internet.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eALEXIS MADRIGAL\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003ePowering the Dream\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In this epic work, Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant offer us compulsively readable successor to The Design of Everyday Things. They have crafted a definitive narrative as well-designed as the products that grace its pages.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eBRIAN MERCHANT\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eThe One Device\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Digital-era design has strived to eliminate the user manual: To make and sell us things that ‘just work.’ But this leaves us uncertain how things work—or why they’ve been made to work the way they do. \u003ci\u003eUser Friendly \u003c\/i\u003egives us the answers. It’s the missing manual to the designed world, and that’s just what we need.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eROB WALKER\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Art of Noticing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Happy, shiny, smiley gadgets! They're everywhere, and they're watching us. User-friendliness is the cognitive lubricant that makes us love the stuff we use. This fascinating book unveils how—and why—that love was crafted.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eELLEN LUPTON\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Users: Designing for People\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eUser Friendly\u003c\/i\u003e is compulsory reading for the current age, in which business and society have turned to design in pursuit of growth and change. But design means little without empathy, and this book lays out a remarkable tale of how that insight became truth. This essential work shows why design has to be at the center of the human enterprise.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eTIM BROWN\u003c\/b\u003e, Chair of IDEO and author of \u003ci\u003eChange by Design\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eUser Friendly\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates our current age, where our devices strive to know us better than we know ourselves. Anyone who cares about the fraught but increasingly urgent role that design plays in our lives owes it to themselves to read this hugely compelling book.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eSCOTT DADICH\u003c\/b\u003e, former Editor-in-Chief, Wired, and creator of \u003ci\u003eAbstract: The Art of Design\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rarely do I dog-ear pages as much as I did with this book. Engrossing and rich with rarely-told stories and interviews, \u003ci\u003eUser Friendly\u003c\/i\u003e gives critical insights to make us better, smarter consumers of design. And it shows us how those ideas will shape the world to come. It is a must read for anyone who cares about design and the challenges it has to meet in the coming decades.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eJOE GEBBIA\u003c\/b\u003e, co-founder of Airbnb\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“When I had to stop, mid-reading, and send one of the stories in this book to a colleague, I knew it was instantly indispensable—whether for well-versed designers or anyone who’s ever questioned the design of everyday life. Rarely does a book have the power to turn any reader into a more conscious participant in the world around us. You need to read it.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eLIZ DANZICO\u003c\/b\u003e, Chair of the Interaction Design MFA program at the School of Visual Arts\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLong-listed Amazon.com Best Books of the Year (2019)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9780374279752\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"MCD","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40708919623886,"sku":"9780374279752","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_7c0df83e-c488-4494-8914-7c37292784fd.jpg?v=1640668228","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9780374279752","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}