Don Norman
Donald Norman, born December 25, 1935, and best known by his nickname “DonN”, is an internationally-known author and scholar. He is known for his extensive contributions to the field of user experience (UX) and for his 1983 book on cognitive science, “The Design of Everyday Things”. During a stint at Apple Computer, he became one of the first people to discuss the concept of the user experience and is the pioneer of the “user-centered design” approach.
Don Norman is an American author, user experience designer, and a professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego. He currently serves as an advisor to large corporations and design firms around the world. He is a former professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego and has published more than 20 books and over 100 articles.
His most famous work, “The Design of Everyday Things”, was published in 1988 and is considered one of the most important books in the design field. The book explores the relationship between the design of everyday objects and our experience of them. It emphasizes the importance of considering users’ needs, feelings, and abilities before designing products. Norman’s second major book is “Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things”. It further explores the importance of aesthetics and emotion in the design process.
Norman has been influential in the development of many aspects of modern interface design, such as affordance in user interfaces. He has been a speaker at international conferences and he is a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review, which he serves on their advisory board. He is an Honorary Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Fellow of both the Association for Computing Machinery and the Association for Psychological Science.
Don Norman has also written several other design books such as, “Living with Complexity” (2010), “The Design of Future Things” (2007), and “The Invisible Computer” (1998); in these books Norman seeks to explain some of the cultural, psychological, and technological aspects of design. He has written extensively on topics concerning design, usability, artificial intelligence, the psychology of everyday life, and the philosophy of everyday life.
Norman takes a user-centric design approach to all his work, emphasizing the importance of user-centered design. He strongly believes that in designing products and services, people should always be put before technology. This idea is expressed in his motto, “Smart technology, happy people”. He is an advocate of designing with psychology in mind and believes that understanding how people think and how they use technology will help us create better products, services, and user experiences.
Overall, Don Norman is one of the most influential people in the world when it comes to design, usability and user experience. His work has inspired countless designers, technology professionals, and product developers. His books on design provide an insightful view on the importance of understanding people as users and on how to design for them. He has left an indelible mark on modern user-centered design practices, and his legacy will continue to be felt for many years to come.
