Summary: The Inmates Are Running The Asylum - Alan Cooper

By Must Read Summaries

Must Read Summaries
Publication date: November 2011

ISBN: 9782806233639

Digital Book format: ePub (Adobe DRM)

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This work offers a summary of the book "THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How To Restore the Sanity" by Alan Cooper.Alan Cooper is the founder of Cooper Interaction Design, a consulting firm that develops interactive product designs for high-tech companies. Computer technology is embedded within almost every product that is manufactured. Yet all too often, these ''new-and-improved'' products are hard to use because the engineers who are developing the interface between the user and the machine don't think like the average man-on-the-street who knows nothing about technology. Therefore, the situation effectively becomes the equivalent of letting the inmates run the asylum in which they are incarcerated.Better products which work the same way average people think need to be developed. Only then will new products deliver on their implied promise of enhancing the quality of life for their users. According to Alan Cooper, designers who are skilled in this specific field should be responsible for designing the interface between the user and the machine.In The Inmates Are Running the Asylum, Alan Cooper asserts that the goal of computer usage should be "not to make anyone feel stupid." This well-written book makes us rethink entrenched priorities in software planning.