50 Ways to Fool Your User

From the way we interact with our workspaces to the simple act of changing a duvet cover, the world around us is shaped by design and not always for the better. This book offers an engaging look at how everyday objects and systems can confuse, frustrate, or even hinder us yet also explores how a better understanding of human behavior can lead to improvements.

Written with humor and professional insight, 50 Ways to Fool Your User: How to Make Everyday Products and Systems Work for Us invites readers to question the quirks of modern life while imagining how things could work better for everyone. Across 50 chapters, scientific explanations are paired with snappy anecdotes. Each chapter concludes with actionable takeaways. Whether it’s struggling with unwieldy packaging, enduring the infamous middle seat on an airplane, or navigating the frustrations of an AI call center, these relatable scenarios highlight the often-overlooked aspects of design that impact our daily lives. In the final chapter, the ideas are summarized into a neat practical ethos, offering ergonomic principles to inspire smarter, more thoughtful solutions in everything from technology to office furniture. Through reading this book, the reader will gather a view of what good and bad design looks like and how these examples can inform their work in designing better products, systems and services.

This book is for professionals and academics interested in human factors, ergonomics and designing with the human in mind, but also interesting for every layman. It will appeal to designers, engineers and systems operators.