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 explore:

• Designs that can kill, including the bad interface that doomed a young cancer patient
• Designs that anger, through impolite technology and dark patterns
• How design can inadvertently cause emotional pain
• Designs that exclude people through lack of accessibility, diversity, and justice
• How to advocate for ethical design when it isn’t easy to do so
• Tools and techniques that can help you avoid harmful design decisions
• Inspiring professionals who use design to improve our world

• Future Ethics
• Design Leadership: How Top Design Leaders Build and Grow Successful Organizations
• Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience
• Do Good Design: How Design Can Change Our World
• UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want
• Bottlenecks: Aligning UX Design with User Psychology
• Mapping Experiences: A Complete Guide to Creating Value through Journeys, Blueprints, and Diagrams
• Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It
• Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics
• Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique