Henry Dreyfuss (1904–1972)

It is striking for an interaction designer how prescient Dreyfuss was in terms of focusing on users and uses in his industrial design practice. I particularly note how he combines a rigorous approach to usability and user testing with a strong sensibility to aesthetic qualities. The other main strand of the book is speculation about future life, where Dreyfuss in hindsight comes across as a quite naive representative of 1950s modernism and belief in the wondrous potentials of technological progress. But all in all, I would rate the book as a must-read for interaction designers interested in the intellectual traditions of our field.… (mere)