Don Norman

August 19, 2014 by UX-RADIO

Design of Everyday Things

Don’s new book is a starter kit for good design. It is intended to be enjoyable and informative for everyone: everyday people, technical people, designers, and non-designers. One goal is to turn everyone into great observers of the absurd, of the poor design that gives rise to so many of the problems of modern life, especially of modern technology. It will also turn everyone into observers of the good, of the places where thoughtful designers have worked to make our lives easier and smoother. Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable

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Don Norman is both a businessperson (VP at Apple, Executive at HP, executive of an on-line startup) and an academic (Harvard, UC San Diego, Northwestern, KAIST). He is currently Director of the recently established Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego where he is also professor emeritus of both psychology and cognitive science, co-founder and principal of the Nielsen Norman group, and an honorary professor at Tongji University (Shanghai). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an IDEO fellow, and a trustee of IIT’s Institute of design. As co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group he serves on company boards and helps companies make products more enjoyable, understandable, and profitable. He gives frequent keynotes and is known for his many books, including Emotional Design, Living with Complexity, and most recently an expanded and revised edition of Design of Everyday Things. He can be found at www.jnd.org