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    The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Review and Analysis of Cooper's Book)
    The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Review and Analysis of Cooper's Book)
    The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Review and Analysis of Cooper's Book)
    Ebook38 pages39 minutes

    The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Review and Analysis of Cooper's Book)

    By BusinessNews Publishing

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    About this ebook

    The must-read summary of Alan Cooper's book: "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity".

    This complete summary of the ideas from Alan Cooper's book "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum" shows that computer technology is embedded within almost every product that is manufactured. Yet all too often, these ''new-and-improved’’ products are hard to use because the engineers who are developing the interface between the user and the machine don’t think like the average man-on-the-street who knows nothing about technology. Therefore, the situation effectively becomes the equivalent of letting the inmates run the asylum in which they are incarcerated. Better products need to be developed that work in the same way that average people think. Only then will new products deliver on their implied promise of enhancing the quality of life for their users. According to Alan Cooper, designers who are skilled in this specific field should be responsible for designing the interface between the user and the machine. This summary asserts that the goal of computer usage should be "not to make anyone feel stupid". 

    Added-value of this summary: 
    • Save time
    • Understand the key concepts 
    • Increase your business knowledge

    To learn more, read "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum" and rethink entrenched priorities in software planning.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBusiness Book Summaries
    Release dateFeb 15, 2013
    ISBN9782806233646
    The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Review and Analysis of Cooper's Book)

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    Reviews for The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Review and Analysis of Cooper's Book)

    4/5

    178 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      At the time this was written, user centered design was hardly ever talked about much less factored into product design. A logical successor to The Mythical Man Month in many ways. Cannot speak to its relevance in 2015, but I'm guessing it's an evergreen book.
    • 2/5
      I think this book may have been more relevant in its time, so I don't think there's much point picking at any threads that bothered me about this book. It's just that a lot of them did, and I think it was the author's voice that bugged me, most of all. He comes across as arrogant and flailing.I couldn't help thinking he should have applied user-centered design to his outline to maybe tighten things up a bit, as he tended to go on, flogging a dead horse and the reader long after he could have stopped; setting up a number of straw men to knock down again and again and again. The software development process is far from perfect and Cooper has some good ideas that have taken hold that sort of help (though those ideas are also abused and susceptible to bad interaction designers, of which there are many, just like there are good and bad programmers).
    • 4/5
      This book has been on my reading list for quite some time and I'm glad I was finally able to read it. Cooper does an excellent job of building a case about why software is frustrating. Then he unveils his solution of focusing on interaction design through the development of user personas, goal-directed design and user scenarios. Chapter 13 is particularly interesting as Cooper argues for a much longer design period in order to achieve a much shorter (and ultimately cheaper) implementation period. The ideas presented in this chapter are very interesting especially when you compare them to current agile practices.The tone and message in this book struck a deep chord within me, supporting the challenge of why can't software be less frustrating. If you ever felt like software makes you feel stupid and incompetent, but was pressured into thinking it was your fault by those technologists around you (Cooper calls these people apologists), you need to read this book (and The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman).
    • 3/5
      good but a bit nerdy for me.
    • 4/5
      An interesting book to read so long after its initial release. A lot of the problems Cooper discusses are still very real problems in today's companies. It is sad to see the resistance to change.There are somethings that have improved that Cooper obviously could not have predicted, so it is entertaining to read his suggestions for fixes and then what the actual fix was.
    • 3/5
      I was not particularly enamored with this book. Cooper spends the first eight chapters deriding developers in general and recounting failure after failure due to lack of UX/UCD in the process. While I suppose it was important at the time to stress the need for the solution, I felt it could have been done in a much more concise manner.The last several chapters are good and worth a read.You can skip the first several as long as you accept two things as "fact". 1 - developers are jerk and bullies who don't care about you and 2- projects with the wrong focus usually fail.
    • 4/5
      The first book to read to get into interaction design.What I disapprove is the author's disrespect towards software engineers. The title says it all.
    • 4/5
      This book explains in detail how to effectively use personas for user centred design. It also gives pointers for managing engineers, and talks about why engineer control of technology hass lead to technology the average person finds frustrating. The book is well written, but it can be a bit preachy.
    • 5/5
      A must read for anyone involved in hi-tech/software business. At first I hesitated whether to buy the book having already read Norman's The Design of Everyday Things. But the primary subjects are different: interface in the traditional sense versus what Cooper calls interaction - a higher level concept, but I'd say the books are complementary (for those who are interested in both, partially overlapping, subjects).This book will also give you insight into why Apple is so successful with their iPod (and will be with the iPhone) and why opensource software is inherently so unsuccessful in creating end-user products. (This is NOT mentioned in the book, just my conclusions.)
    • 4/5
      Even though some information is dated, the main concepts remain true (which is actually a little sad, considering the book was first published in 1999).
      It's also interesting to see some largely adopted techniques today being described as new tools to help design software.
      The only thing I didn't like: the condescending tone used to describe programmers. Today, it's easier and results in better things when you make friends and work together than when you act as the sole owner of the design truth.
    • 5/5
      Summary captured very well. In some cases quotes from original book have been captured.
    • 5/5
       The book that introduced personas. Easy to read, and a great look into better ways to design a high-tech product.

    Book preview

    The Inmates Are Running the Asylum (Review and Analysis of Cooper's Book) - BusinessNews Publishing

    Book Presentation: The Inmates Are Running The Asylum by Alan Cooper

    Summary of The Inmates Are Running The Asylum (Alan Cooper)

    Book Abstract

    Main Idea

    Computer technology is rapidly in the process of being embedded within almost every product that is manufactured. Yet all too often, these new-and-improved products are harder to use than their non-intelligent predecessors - because engineers rather than designers are developing the interface between the user and the machine. And engineers don’t think at all like the average man-on-the-street who knows nothing about technology. Therefore, the situation effectively becomes the equivalent of letting the inmates run the asylum in which they are incarcerated.

    Instead of expecting the user to learn how to use the product, the situation needs to be reversed. Better products need to be developed which work the same way average people think. Only then will new products deliver on their implied promise of enhancing the quality of life for their users.

    Those kinds of changes will only occur in the real world if responsibility for designing the interface between the user and the machine is transferred away from engineers and into the hands of designers who are skilled in this specific field.

    About the Author

    ALAN COOPER is the founder of Cooper Interaction Design, a West Coast consulting firm that develops interactive product designs for high-tech companies. Mr. Cooper has more than 20-years’ experience designing and developing consumer software products, and is widely acknowledged as the Father of Virtual Basic for which he received the rare and coveted Windows

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