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Donald Norman

Donald Arthur Norman (born December 25, 1935^[1]) is a professor emeritus of cognitive science at University of California, San Diego and a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University, where he also co-directs the Segal Design Institute and the dual degree MBA + Engineering degree program between the Kellogg school and Northwestern Engineering. He is on numerous company advisory boards including the editorial board of Encyclopædia Britannica. He currently splits his time between consulting and his teaching and writing at Northwestern from his homes in Evanston, Illinois and Palo Alto, California.

Many of Norman's books deal mostly with usability or with cognitive psychology, but Things That Make Us Smart also makes a few remarks of critical nature regarding our society. In particular Norman dislikes the content-less nature of television and bad museum exhibits. Lately he has tended to focus on the positive. He loves products which are enjoyable to use, a feature which he attributes to putting together emotion and design, or heart and mind. He has explained this in detail in his book Emotional Design.

He is a promoter of the concept of information appliances, which he has covered in his book The Invisible Computer.

His newest book The Design of Future Things deals with the role of automation in the home and automobile.

He co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group, a consulting group on matters of usability which also includes Jakob Nielsen and Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini.

Career

Norman received an S.B. in EECS from MIT in 1957,^[2] and a Doctor of Philosophy in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. After a few years at the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard University, Norman came to the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1966, first as a professor in the psychology department. Although he started as an experimental and mathematical psychologist, Norman's focus shifted to cognitive science. At UCSD, Norman was a founder of the Institute for Cognitive Science and one of the organizers of the Cognitive Science Society (along with Roger Schank, Allan Collins, and others), which held its first meeting at the UCSD campus in 1979.

Norman made the transition from cognitive science to cognitive engineering. It was about this time that he wrote the article "The Trouble with Unix" in Datamation which catapulted his prominence in the computer world.

Norman published several important books during his time at UCSD, one of which, "User Centered System Design," obliquely referred to the university in the initials of its title. In 1986, he became the founding chair of a new cognitive science department.

In 1995, Norman left UCSD to join Apple Computer, initially as an Apple Fellow, and then as the Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group. He later worked for Hewlett-Packard before joining with Jakob Nielsen to form the Nielsen Norman Group in 1998. He returned to academia as a professor of computer science at Northwestern University where he is co-Director of the Segal Design Institute.

Norman has received many awards for his work. He received an honorary degree from the University of Padua in Padua, Italy. In 2001 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, and in 2006 received the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science.^[3]

User centered design

In his book The Design of Everyday Things, originally called "The Psychology of Everyday Things," Norman describes the psychology behind what he deems 'good' and 'bad' design, through case studies, and proposes design principles. He exalts the importance of design in our everyday lives, and the consequences of errors caused by bad design.

In the book, Norman uses the term "user-centered design" to describe design based on the needs of the user, leaving aside what he deems secondary issues like aesthetics. User-centered design involves simplifying the structure of tasks, making things visible, getting the mapping right, exploiting the powers of constraint, designing for error, explaining affordances and seven stages of action.

Other topics of the book include:

• The Psychology of Everyday Things
• The Psychology of Everyday Actions
• Knowledge in the Head and in the World
• Knowing What to Do
• To Err Is Human
• The Design Challenge

Partial bibliography

Psychology

• Human information processing: An introduction to psychology (1972) in collaboration with Peter H. Lindsay (first author)^[4]
• Memory and attention (1977)
• Learning and memory (1982)

Usability

• Direct manipulation interfaces (1985) in collaboration with E. L. Hutchins (first author) and J.D. Hollan
• User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction (1986) (editor in collaboration with Stephen Draper)
• The Design of Everyday Things (1988, originally under the title The Psychology of Everyday Things) (Newprint 2002)
• Turn signals are the facial expressions of automobiles (1992)
• Things That Make Us Smart (1993)
• The Invisible Computer (1998)
• Emotional Design (2004)
• The Design of Future Things (2007)
• Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine CD-ROM by the Voyager Company combining "Design of Every Day Things," "Turn signals are the facial expressions of automobiles," "Things That Make Us Smart," and various technical reports (1994)

See also

• Affordance
• Executive system
• Usability engineering
• Human action cycle
• Human-computer interaction
• Interaction Design
• User-centered design
• Seven stages of action

References

External links

• Don's homepage
• Publications by Donald Norman from Interaction-Design.org
• List of Don Norman articles
• Don Norman — Userati
• Lecture by Don Norman on "The Design of Future Things" (Stanford University, February 9, 2007)

From Wikiquote

Human thought is not like logic; it is fundamentally different in kind and spirit. The difference is neither worse nor better. But it is the difference that leads to creative discovery and to great robustness of behavior.

Donald Arthur Norman (born December 25, 1935) is a professor emeritus of cognitive science at University of California, San Diego and a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University.

Sourced

• People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms.
  • Things That Make Us Smart (1993), Epilogue

• Although I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a stupid question, there can indeed be stupid answers. 42 is an example. Not only is this a poor ripoff of Doug Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide, but it isn't even a prime number. Everyone surely knows that numerical answers to profound questions are always prime. (The correct answer is 37.)
  • "The Don" Reveals All: Part 1

The Design of Everyday Things (1988, 2002)

Originally published as The Psychology of Everyday Things. Page numbers refer to the 2002 Basic Books edition, ISBN 0465067107.

• Serious accidents are frequently blamed on "human error." Yet careful analysis of such situations shows that the design or installation of the equipment has contributed significantly to the problems. The design team or installers did not pay sufficient attention to the needs of those who would be using the equipment, so confusion or error was almost unavoidable.
  • Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. ix

• When you have trouble with things—whether it's figuring out whether to push or pull a door or the arbitrary vagaries of the modern computer and electronics industries—it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself: blame the designer.
  • Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. x

• Good design is also an act of communication between the designer and the user, except that all the communication has to come about by the appearance of the device itself. The device must explain itself.
  • Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. xi

• Technologists are not noted for learning from the errors of the past. They look forward, not behind, so they repeat the same problems over and over again. [...] As each new technology matures, customers are no longer happy with the flashy promises of the technology but instead demand understandable and workable designs. Slowly the manufacturers relearn the same basic principles and apply them to their products. The most egregious failures always come from the developers of the most recent technologies.
  • Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. xv

• Usability is not often thought of as a criterion during the purchasing process. Moreover, unless you actually test a number of units in a realistic environment doing typical tasks, you are not likely to notice the ease or difficulty of use. [...] Do it right there in the store. Do not be afraid to make mistakes or ask stupid questions. Remember, any problems you have are probably the design's fault, not yours.
  • Ch. 3, p. 78

• The principle of visibility is violated over and over again in everyday things. In numerous designs crucial parts are carefully hidden away. Handles on cabinets distract from some design aesthetics, and so they are deliberately made invisible or left out. The cracks that signify the existence of a door can also distract from the pure lines of the design, so these significant cues are also minimized or eliminated. The result can be a smooth expanse of gleaming material, with no sign of doors or drawers, let alone of how those doors and drawers might be operated.
  • Ch. 4, p. 100

• Even though principles of rationality seem as often violated as followed, we still cling to the notion that human thought should be rational, logical, and orderly. Much of law is based upon the concept of rational thought and behavior. Much of economic theory is based upon the model of the rational human who attempts to optimize personal benefit, utility, or comfort. Many scientists who study artificial intelligence use the mathematics of formal logic—the predicate calculus—as their major tool to simulate thought. [...] Human thought is not like logic; it is fundamentally different in kind and spirit. The difference is neither worse nor better. But it is the difference that leads to creative discovery and to great robustness of behavior.
  • Ch. 5, pp. 114–115

• Change the attitude toward errors. Think of an object's user as attempting to do a task, getting there by imperfect approximations. Don't think of the user as making errors; think of the actions as approximations of what is desired.
  • Ch. 5, p. 131

• "It probably won a prize" is a disparaging remark in this book. Why? Because prizes tend to be given for some aspects of design, to the neglect of all others—usually including usability.
  • Ch. 6, p. 152

• In their work, designers often become expert with the device they are designing. Users are often expert at the task they are trying to perform with the device. [...] Professional designers are usually aware of the pitfalls. But most design is not done by professional designers, it is done by engineers, programmers, and managers.
  • Ch. 6, p. 156

• Innocence lost is not easily regained. The designer simply cannot predict the problems people will have, the misinterpretations that will arise, and the errors that will get made.
  • Ch. 6, p. 157

• Creeping featurism is a disease, fatal if not treated promptly. There are some cures, but, as usual, the best approach is to practice preventative medicine.
  • Ch. 6, p. 173

• Computer scientists have so far worked on developing powerful programming languages that make it possible to solve the technical problems of computation. Little effort has gone toward devising the languages of interaction.
  • Ch. 6, p. 180

• When I use a direct manipulation system—whether for text editing, drawing pictures, or creating and playing games—I do think of myself not as using a computer but as doing the particular task. The computer is, in effect, invisible. The point cannot be overstressed: make the computer system invisible.
  • Ch. 6, p. 185

• Hypertext makes a virtue out of lack of organization, allowing ideas and thoughts to be juxtaposed at will. [...] The advent of hypertext is apt to make writing much more difficult, not easier. Good writing, that is.
  • Ch. 7, pp. 212—213

• In the consumer economy taste is not the criterion in the marketing of expensive soft drinks, usability is not the primary criterion in the marketing of home and office appliances. We are surrounded with objects of desire, not objects of use.
  • Ch. 7, p. 216

The Invisible Computer (1998)

• As the technology matures, it becomes less and less relevant. The technology is taken for granted. Now, new customers enter the marketplace, customers who are not captivated by technology, but who instead want reliability, convenience, no fuss or bother, and low cost.
  • Ch. 10
• Go to the bookstore and look at how many bookshelves are filled with books trying to explain how to work the devices. We don't see shelves of books on how to use television sets, telephones, refrigerators or washing machines. Why should we for computer-based applications?
  • Ch. 10
• We are victims of our own success. We have let technology lead the way, pushing ever faster to newer, faster, and more powerful systems, with nary a moment to rest, contemplate, and to reflect upon why, how, and for whom all this energy has been expended.
  • Ch. 10
• The major problems facing the development of products that are safer, less prone to error, and easier to use and understand are not technological: they are social and organizational.
  • Ch. 10

External links

Wikipedia has an article about:

Donald Norman