The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

By Alan Cooper

Categories: Business & Money, Computers & Technology

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum is a book by software designer Alan Cooper, first published in 1999. Cooper argues that most high-tech products, from software to cameras and cars, are frustrating to use because they are designed by programmers for programmers rather than for the people who use them. He explains how this happens and makes the case for goal-directed interaction design, introducing the use of personas to understand users before any code is written.

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• Brian Armstrong: “The vast majority of products in the world cause frustration, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Products fail by trying to be all things to all people.”