I absolutely recommend The Design of Everyday Things. It's full of concrete case stories of design failures and improvements on them, pretty much like a bunch of 99% Invisible episodes strung together. Admittedly, I now get a little angrier whenever I use other people's bathrooms and find weird faucets and toilets, but at least I can rationalize it better.
I haven't read Norman, but I've heard of it. It's on my list of "get around to it some day" books. I've read Petroski, however, which is much more of a history book but still pretty awesome. Thanks for reminding me that I've been meaning to pick up this book.
I listened to an interview with Mels Crouwel last week. He mentioned that he always checks out the bathrooms because it is the best measure of how much thought an architect has put into its buildings. Still, some come up with nonsense like this:Architects and builders - who actually are the purchasers and who actually are responsible for the design of our bathrooms - must begin to think of hygiene facilities as an important part of the home and as an important aspect of our daily lives rather than as a necessary evil to be accommodated according to the dictates of some obsolete handbook or drawing template in whatever space is left over with whatever part of the budget is minimally required to meet legal standards.
