---
product_id: 100048701
title: "Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine Kindle Edition"
brand: "don norman"
price: "€ 18.82"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.nl/products/100048701-things-that-make-us-smart-defending-human-attributes-in-age
store_origin: NL
region: Netherlands
---

# Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine Kindle Edition

**Brand:** don norman
**Price:** € 18.82
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine Kindle Edition by don norman
- **How much does it cost?** € 18.82 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nl](https://www.desertcart.nl/products/100048701-things-that-make-us-smart-defending-human-attributes-in-age)

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- don norman enthusiasts

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- Trusted don norman brand quality
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## Description

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## Images

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    change your perspective on the relationship between human and machine
  

*by B***N on Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2013*

this is a very good book about the relationship between human and machine from the design and utility perspectives. the message is important, especially when technology becomes increasingly ubiquitous in our life. At times, the book is a bit repetitive. But, overall, a very good book with important message.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    5% gold
  

*by C***N on Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2018*

5% of this book is gold. The rest is a lot of fluff and meandering.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A summary look at the systematized theory behind Norman's usability analyses
  

*by E***K on Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2010*

Where 
  
The Design of Everyday Things







  
  
     is device-centered, this work analyzes device interaction with a similar degree of rigor but from a user perspective. Norman divides interaction into experiential and reflective modes while considering the strengths and weaknesses of humans and machines. Concluding that human strengths are pattern recognition, perception with spatial navigation and manipulation, and narration and that human weaknesses are poor memory for detail along with a vulnerability to tunnel vision, Norman proposes three guiding principles for design. The first two, the naturalness principle and the perceptual principle, respect human strengths. The former insists that a device's surface representation maps to its internal state in a comprehensible way. The perceptual principle insists that a device convey these state changes by perceptible changes, i.e. visually and aurally. These principles seem to follow directly from the affordances and feedback Norman emphasizes in 
  
The Design of Everyday Things







  
  
    .Alternatively, Norman's third, most novel, principle follows his analysis of human weaknesses. This appropriateness principle insists that machines provide exactly the info needed for a task, i.e. they should limit the detail of their reports and hide the method, though not the organization, of storing information. According to Norman, by following all these principles designers can produce devices that informate rather than automate, i.e. complement humans rather than substitute for humans. However, Norman laments that it is often easier for designers to allow machine needs for accuracy, quantifiable metrics and their insensitivity to physical constraints or user needs to drive design and thereby produce hard technology, which forces users to accommodate the machine, rather than soft technology, which shapes the machine to serve user needs.The arguments of this work seem more theoretical and less practical than those of 
  
The Design of Everyday Things







  
  
    . Further, most of the practical advice and applications of this work appear with greater detail in that book. Consequently, this work may be more gratifying to readers interested in psychology, including learning, as well as artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, Norman's distinction between experiential and reflective modes of interaction is underdeveloped in this work, only to be expanded in the subsequent 
  
Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things







  
  
    .

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*Product available on Desertcart Netherlands*
*Store origin: NL*
*Last updated: 2026-02-24*