Talk2003
3 Ways Good Design Makes You Happy
Don Norman (TED)
Argues good design must satisfy three separate levels of processing — visceral, behavioural and reflective — and that a product can fail at one while succeeding at another.
Human-Computer Interaction
The part of the system that a person actually touches.
9 topics · 10 curated works
Topics
- 01Foundations & Overviews
- 02Interaction Design2
- 03Usability Testing
- 04Accessibility2
- 05Information Architecture1
- 06User Research Methods1
- 07Cognitive Ergonomics2
- 08Interface Design Patterns1
- 09Augmented & Virtual Reality Interfaces1
Reading in Human-Computer Interaction
10A way in
Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
3 Ways Good Design Makes You Happy
Don Norman (TED) · 2003
Argues good design must satisfy three separate levels of processing — visceral, behavioural and reflective — and that a product can fail at one while…
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages
Ben Shneiderman · 1983
Argues that interfaces showing objects and actions continuously, with immediate feedback, are learned faster and remembered longer than command…
+4 more at this level
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System
Ivan Sutherland · 1963
Demonstrates direct manipulation of graphical objects on a screen, establishing that a user could draw and constrain shapes interactively rather than…
+3 more at this level
10 works
Paper1983
Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming Languages
Ben Shneiderman
Argues that interfaces showing objects and actions continuously, with immediate feedback, are learned faster and remembered longer than command languages.
13 pageslink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1995
Apprenticing with the Customer
Hugh Beyer & Karen Holtzblatt
Argues that watching and questioning a user while they work in their own setting reveals requirements that interviews and surveys after the fact miss.
FreeIntermediate
Paper1997
A Survey of Augmented Reality
Ronald T. Azuma
Defines augmented reality as combining real and virtual content that is registered in three dimensions and interactive in real time, and separates its real problems from those of virtual reality.
PaidIntermediate
Paper2000
A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design
Jan O. Borchers
Adapts Christopher Alexander's pattern language, in which each solution names the forces it balances, to document recurring interaction design solutions instead of just cataloguing them.
FreeIntermediate
Report2008
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
World Wide Web Consortium
Sets testable success criteria for perceivable, operable, understandable and robust content, so accessibility can be checked against a specification rather than judged by intuition.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1963
Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System
Ivan Sutherland
Demonstrates direct manipulation of graphical objects on a screen, establishing that a user could draw and constrain shapes interactively rather than through commands.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Paper1980
The Keystroke-Level Model for User Performance Time with Interactive Systems
Stuart K. Card, Thomas P. Moran & Allen Newell
Predicts how long an expert user takes to complete a task from the sequence of keystrokes and mental preparation it requires, before the interface is even built.
FreeAdvanced
Paper1989
The Design of Browsing and Berrypicking Techniques for the Online Search Interface
Marcia J. Bates
Argues real information searching is an evolving sequence of small moves guided by what is found along the way, not a single query matched against a fixed need.
FreeAdvanced
Paper2011
Ability-Based Design
Jacob O. Wobbrock, Shaun K. Kane, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Sri Kurniawan & Robin Wolk
Argues interfaces should be designed around what a specific user can do rather than retrofitted to accommodate disability, shifting the burden of adaptation from the person to the system.
FreeAdvanced
In order written
1963 – 2011- 1963Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication SystemIvan Sutherland
- 1980The Keystroke-Level Model for User Performance Time with Interactive SystemsStuart K. Card, Thomas P. Moran & Allen Newell
- 1983Direct Manipulation: A Step Beyond Programming LanguagesBen Shneiderman
- 1995Apprenticing with the CustomerHugh Beyer & Karen Holtzblatt
- 1997A Survey of Augmented RealityRonald T. Azuma
- 2000A Pattern Approach to Interaction DesignJan O. Borchers
- 20033 Ways Good Design Makes You HappyDon Norman (TED)
- 2008Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0World Wide Web Consortium
- 2011Ability-Based DesignJacob O. Wobbrock, Shaun K. Kane, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Sri Kurniawan & Robin Wolk
Also covered elsewhere
This subject genuinely sits in more than one domain. These fields approach the same ground with different methods.