What do you think?
Rate this book
Tragic Design: The Impact of Bad Product Design and How to Fix It
Bad design is everywhere, and its cost is much higher than we think. In this thought-provoking book, authors Jonathan Shariat and Cynthia Savard Saucier explain how poorly designed products can anger, sadden, exclude, and even kill people who use them. The designers responsible certainly didn’t intend harm, so what can you do to avoid making similar mistakes?
Tragic Design examines real case studies that show how certain design choices adversely affected users, and includes in-depth interviews with authorities in the design industry. Pick up this book and learn how you can be an agent of change in the design community and at your company.
You’ll
Designs that can kill, including the bad interface that doomed a young cancer patientDesigns that anger, through impolite technology and dark patternsHow design can inadvertently cause emotional painDesigns that exclude people through lack of accessibility, diversity, and justiceHow to advocate for ethical design when it isn’t easy to do soTools and techniques that can help you avoid harmful design decisionsInspiring professionals who use design to improve our world
Tragic Design examines real case studies that show how certain design choices adversely affected users, and includes in-depth interviews with authorities in the design industry. Pick up this book and learn how you can be an agent of change in the design community and at your company.
You’ll
Designs that can kill, including the bad interface that doomed a young cancer patientDesigns that anger, through impolite technology and dark patternsHow design can inadvertently cause emotional painDesigns that exclude people through lack of accessibility, diversity, and justiceHow to advocate for ethical design when it isn’t easy to do soTools and techniques that can help you avoid harmful design decisionsInspiring professionals who use design to improve our world
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 25, 2016
57 people are currently reading
884 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 24, 2019
Anyone who does product design - or any kind of design really - needs to read this book thoroughly. Did you know that bad design is the cause of many deaths (or near-deaths) in the medical setting? One girl, for instance, was administered a fatal dose of drug as an indirect result of the poor interface design of the equipment used by medical staff to administer her medication. Another example involved a woman who was almost unable to successfully apply the epipen on her friend who had gone into anaphylactic shock and was moments away from death, because the instructions were completely unhelpful, and the product design had obviously not taken into consideration how an actual user would attempt to apply the product.
Aside from the many interesting examples of bad design and its causes/effects, the book talks about how to deal with and solve specific problems encountered when designing something.
Aside from the many interesting examples of bad design and its causes/effects, the book talks about how to deal with and solve specific problems encountered when designing something.
May 25, 2023
Without being overly dramatic - this book will change your life, especially if you’re a designer. It really opens your eyes to the power of good design. A must-read for those in the industry.
March 19, 2019
Bad design invokes comments like "my eyes are bleeding". However, bad design (unintentional and intentional) could be much more tragic, causing psychological discomfort and even death. This book documents many cases of bad design and discusses ways we could fix it, using good design to get important things done. The book includes many practical examples and discussions and will be of interest for anyone--as design process benefit from integrating different perspectives.
September 10, 2017
The book is not only about tragic design, it gives you plenty of good design too. Written in a very easy-to-read way, will take you through the design that can kill, anger, sadden and exclude. Will give you an idea how to interact with end-users as well as how to understand/collect/present information about a design.
July 22, 2024
A well intended design can also be problematic. It can make users sad, angry frustrated for the reason the designer has not envisioned.
The book takes examples from the high stake situations such as medical devices, flight, security and shows how design can be tragic and what can be done for them.
The book takes examples from the high stake situations such as medical devices, flight, security and shows how design can be tragic and what can be done for them.
January 15, 2018
Jonathan and Cynthia have done a remarkable job at presenting how poor design choices can sadden, frustrate, infuriate and even kill. The book reads like a breeze, as it's filled with use cases and scenario analyses of situations where poorly thought design choices had a negative impact on a wide range of targets.
The language is clear and simple, which is a remarkable opportunity for the whys to stick you for a long time. And if you're a designer, of any kind really, you will need the answer to those whys at the tip of your tongue.
The language is clear and simple, which is a remarkable opportunity for the whys to stick you for a long time. And if you're a designer, of any kind really, you will need the answer to those whys at the tip of your tongue.
November 8, 2020
Even though I'm not a designer, this book felt like an insightful and enjoyable conversation with like-minded colleagues. Bad design surrounds us and it's up to us to change it - even if we are just a user.
Product managers can learn a lot from taking this designers perspective and injecting more empathy with the users into their day to day decisions. We often pride ourselves for being data driven, but forget to consider the qualitative data, apart from the quantitative.
Recommend to any designer, product manager or just to people interested in design and technology.
Product managers can learn a lot from taking this designers perspective and injecting more empathy with the users into their day to day decisions. We often pride ourselves for being data driven, but forget to consider the qualitative data, apart from the quantitative.
Recommend to any designer, product manager or just to people interested in design and technology.
June 30, 2018
This is a book that every designer should read. It catalogues a series of 'tragic designs' and discusses what everyday designers can do create outcomes which don't cause inadvertent harm. The material is imparted with empathy and compassion and the focus is very much on making a positive difference through carefully considered design decisions.
October 22, 2022
I would like to thank Jonathan and Cynthia for their effort in writing this incredible book!
They compose this book with empathy and thoughtfulness.
There are many interesting points in the content because it not only discusses the harmful effects of bad design but also the necessity for designers to speak up for ethical matters and become the voice of users.
This book really makes me feel heard and seen. I faced a tense moment when I designed instructions for users, but the stakeholder insisted on removing them. Even though I designed the feature with a user-centered approach, the stakeholder believed it would not be useful. Back then, I argued a lot with him and was disappointed. The stakeholder seemed to ignore my reason and analogy even though I gave him the rationale. As I read, I found the content to be in sync with my experience.
From this book, I learned the following key lessons:
1. Blaming the last people involved in a process for making a costly mistake is not productive. They are generally just one of the multiple layers of the Swiss Cheese model.
2. Good visual design reduces the cognitive load required to complete a task.
3. Badly designed products serve their creator (or sponsor) first and the user second.
4. Designers are not always in charge, since they often answer to a client. When confronted with design solutions they are not comfortable with, designers have the responsibility to educate their clients.
5. Hidden costs often fool us into thinking that what we made was successful, when in reality the cost is hidden or externalised. Failing to identify all of the hidden costs and the impact of our designs on the world around us can lead to blindly and unintentionally causing harm to others.
6. Designers are gatekeepers of technology. They have a critical role to play in the way technology will impact people's lives. It is up to us to ensure the gates are as wide open and accessible as possible.
They compose this book with empathy and thoughtfulness.
There are many interesting points in the content because it not only discusses the harmful effects of bad design but also the necessity for designers to speak up for ethical matters and become the voice of users.
This book really makes me feel heard and seen. I faced a tense moment when I designed instructions for users, but the stakeholder insisted on removing them. Even though I designed the feature with a user-centered approach, the stakeholder believed it would not be useful. Back then, I argued a lot with him and was disappointed. The stakeholder seemed to ignore my reason and analogy even though I gave him the rationale. As I read, I found the content to be in sync with my experience.
From this book, I learned the following key lessons:
1. Blaming the last people involved in a process for making a costly mistake is not productive. They are generally just one of the multiple layers of the Swiss Cheese model.
2. Good visual design reduces the cognitive load required to complete a task.
3. Badly designed products serve their creator (or sponsor) first and the user second.
4. Designers are not always in charge, since they often answer to a client. When confronted with design solutions they are not comfortable with, designers have the responsibility to educate their clients.
5. Hidden costs often fool us into thinking that what we made was successful, when in reality the cost is hidden or externalised. Failing to identify all of the hidden costs and the impact of our designs on the world around us can lead to blindly and unintentionally causing harm to others.
6. Designers are gatekeepers of technology. They have a critical role to play in the way technology will impact people's lives. It is up to us to ensure the gates are as wide open and accessible as possible.
January 11, 2020
Interesting book presenting several cases for the impact that design of products have on people lives. As smaller is your company, more pressure do you face to release your unfinished product with the label MVP on it and this can be used to postponed or justify any bad decisions of the present.
As economy goes, I can't blame the small entreprenuer that is eager to get the spot first. We just have to live with it? Idk, maybe the pressure from the customers should be too overwelming towards not accepting anything that is not great quality. But that's not true either.
As economy goes, I can't blame the small entreprenuer that is eager to get the spot first. We just have to live with it? Idk, maybe the pressure from the customers should be too overwelming towards not accepting anything that is not great quality. But that's not true either.
December 24, 2022
This is clearly a book meant to be a textbook for design students. Some of the ideas covered are interesting and insightful, however it feel like the editors just gave up knowing it would be a mandatory purchase for many students. The structure of the book is disorganized, figures are often too small to read or unclear. There are hyperlinks in the text which are entirely useless. The book is repetitive and explains a lot of what is happening or what you can do without explaining the how/why. Overall I would not read this book again.
February 18, 2019
It’s thankfully a short read, but even then it’s fairly repetitive and if you are a UX professional of almost any stripe most of this will be old hat. Having said that, there are a few nice ideas, the examples are solid and compelling and if you’re new the field this might be a good take on the value of user-centered design.
June 14, 2020
This book is a great reminder for designers of the responsibilities that we have when creating solutions. Tragic Design shows several examples of bad product decisions that culminated in deaths or severe injuries. Most of the tragic examples could have been prevented if designers/engineers have done more research or user testing.
August 19, 2022
Overall, the book content is very good and informative. It starts by explaining some of the common design issues happening around us, without even us realising. Then, it explains about what, us, as designers can do. Although this book covers a lot about design, it is also a good read to those in other role, such as Product Manager or even a Software Engineer.
June 25, 2017
Feels somewhat repetitive at points, but the overall takeaway is an interesting viewpoint of what constitutes the good, bad and ugly of design for both designers and non-designers. Should inspire those dabblers in design who want to learn more.
November 10, 2017
It’s important to know that this book is in full color (many UX issues involve color) so that justifies the price. Good read with lots of examples from top companies. You’ll want to share with colleagues.
December 18, 2019
A very interesting book. I'm not a designer but have definitely been on the receiving end of poor design. It's interesting to see what goes into creating a positive, effective user experience on the internet.
June 5, 2020
This book was eye-opening for the most part. The interviews with other designers also helped to drive the point home and the best part was that it provided steps to be followed in order to make the world a better place through design.
October 9, 2021
What a great book. Not just a catalog of the ways poor design can harm people, it's also got the tools and techniques you can use to prevent your product design from being unintentionally harmful. Full of interesting examples and ideas.
August 16, 2017
A clear and exceptional guide to thinking through ethical solutions for technology. Jonathan has struck gold with this book. I highly recommend it to all experience designers.
March 11, 2018
I really like the example led approach with which each chapter starts and expands the subjects and highlights the solution.
August 1, 2018
Nothing really new here, it was just an ok book
November 13, 2016
Note that I read the pre-release. Didn't figure that this was super-early material when downloaded late October 2016. Proved a difficult read, often with both amusing and distracting errors. Such as "gorilla user testing", for instance. Some sentences lacked periods, lots of "than" should've been "then" and vice versa.
The book is initially discussing real world design mistakes, but later on dives deep on digital, a topic I think the author managed pretty well and broadly. Personally I'd hoped the book was a bit less digital, but perhaps this is a more novel subject compared to writing another Don Norman rip-off.
Would only recommend this book (when properly edited and finished) to design-newbies or those unaware of usability.
The book is initially discussing real world design mistakes, but later on dives deep on digital, a topic I think the author managed pretty well and broadly. Personally I'd hoped the book was a bit less digital, but perhaps this is a more novel subject compared to writing another Don Norman rip-off.
Would only recommend this book (when properly edited and finished) to design-newbies or those unaware of usability.
November 25, 2017
A lot of good information for the lay reader, but it could have been framed more interestingly and structured in a less academic manner. If not for those two points, I would have given the book a solid four stars. Still worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews