The Inmates are Running the Asylum

The Inmates are Running the Asylum

Alan Cooper

This book is essentially an argument for the existence of interaction design consultants. It discusses the problems associated with giving the task of interface design to managers, marketers and programmers and argues for the use of interaction designers to completely design the system before any implementation is begun.

I agreed with much of what this book had to say about not only managing projects but also about the design process and attitudes of software engineers. I have seen much of what the author mentions in my own projects, where I get so caught up in what I have to do to program a project that I lose track of how people will ultimately use it. I think in terms of which features I want to have and not necessarily in what is needed to support a specific activity or fulfill a need. When engineering software I feel extremely liberated when I do not have to come up with the interaction design as well and can just focus on getting an already agreed upon design constructed correctly. However I do not feel their should be a complete disconnect between those who implement software and those who design the interactions, and neither does the author. Designers need to understand what is required to implement their designs, and most importantly need to understand what sort of interactions are feasible. That is not to say they should be conservative with their designs just because of their knowledge of the implementation, but they should be able to balance optimal interaction with reasonable implementation.

If and when I go into the software industry, I plan to make sure every software engineer I meet has read this, if only to make sure they acknowledge some of the problems associated with the software engineering mindset.