[smusamashah]

" The Design of Everyday Things" is a great non-programming book that programmers should read. It tells you why/how you should make things more usable for your users. If you find yourself failing to use something properly, it's not you being stupid, it's the design.

Design of doors is famously known example from this book.

[jbs789]

I often think about the idea that a good design takes information from the world (or the users head) and puts it into the system, reducing cognitive load. So if a door needs to be pushed, put a push plate on it, rather than requiring the user to remember to push the handle. Think about it when labelling buttons quite a bit, for example. Or workflows.

[smusamashah]

Or even when writing code, think about whoever is going to read or use your code.

Another idea was about suggestive nature of design. If top of a small wall is flat, practically it's asking you to put your empty can on it.