[DESIGN] - Designs that make you go "Hmmmmmm?" - Anyone remember The Design Of Everyday Things. I was very interested in Donald Norman's book back when I first saw it not only because designing for use is somehting we deal with all the time in software. It's also just plain fun to think about and criticise designs. And nothing is nicer than a good design that is gives you everything you need.

Patti sent along this site: Bad Designs which gives examples of poor designs in everyday life. We shouldn't settle for bad designs, we ought to call them out and talk about them. Otherwise we just get used to bad designs. We may learn to live with them, but they still expose us to greater possibility of costly errors and even injury.

For more talk about useability there is Jakob Nielsen's "useit.com" website. The focus there is on web design, but he sometimes wanders into other areas. Worth a look.