I was complaining about bad design to an engineering friend and referred to Don Norman and his classic book "The Design of Everyday Things".
I started googling and found a wealth of information about his work.
These are just a few links.
Norman education was in Engineering and Psychology at MIT and U. Penn.
He is the director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego, but has also served as a faculty member at Harvard, University of California, San Diego, Northwestern, and KAIST (South Korea). He also worked in industry as a VP at Apple and an executive at HP and a startup.

Here are a few links that only scratch the surface of his work.
I'd like to spend a month or two delving into his work.

Some good references to his work:

• Amazon.com: Related Design Books
• Donald Norman - Seven stages of Action - what are norman's seven stages
• Don Norman's jnd.org website / human-centered design
• Don Norman: 3 ways good design makes you happy | TED Talk | TED.com
• Summary of The Design of Everyday Things | Sharritt.com
• Don Norman’s design principles | rastplatznotizen.
• Design Psychology

• The state of the system should be visible
• User should be supplied with continuous feedback
• There should be a good conceptual model which is consistent with the system imag
• Interface should include mappings that reveal relationships between levels