Donald Arthur Norman (born December 25, 1935) is an American researcher, professor, and author. Norman is the director of The Design Lab at
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
.
He is best known for his books on design, especially ''
The Design of Everyday Things''. He is widely regarded for his expertise in the fields of
design
A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
,
usability engineering, and
cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...
,
and has shaped the development of the field of
cognitive systems engineering. He is a co-founder of the
Nielsen Norman Group, along with
Jakob Nielsen. He is also an
IDEO fellow and a member of the Board of Trustees of
IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. He also holds the title of
Professor Emeritus
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
...
of Cognitive Science at the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
. Norman is an active
Distinguished Visiting Professor
Professors in the United States commonly occupy any of several positions of teaching and research within a college or university. In the U.S., the word "professor" is often used to refer to anyone who teaches at a college of university level at ...
at the
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), where he spends two months a year teaching.
Much of Norman's work involves the advocacy of
user-centered design
User-centered design (UCD) or user-driven development (UDD) is a framework of processes in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or brand are given extensive attention at each stag ...
.
His books all have the underlying purpose of furthering the field of design, from doors to computers. Norman has taken a controversial stance in saying that the
design research community has had little impact in the innovation of products, and that while academics can help in refining existing products, it is technologists that accomplish the breakthroughs. To this end, Norman named his website with the initialism ''
JND'' (just-noticeable difference) to signify his endeavors to make a difference.
Early academics
In 1957, Norman received a
B.S. degree in
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(MIT).
Norman received an
M.S.
A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...
degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
He received a
PhD
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in
psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
.
He was one of the earliest graduates from the
Mathematical Psychology
Mathematical psychology is an approach to psychology, psychological research that is based on mathematical modeling of perceptual, thought, Cognition, cognitive and motor processes, and on the establishment of law-like rules that relate quantifi ...
group at University of Pennsylvania and his advisor was
Duncan Luce.
After graduating, Norman took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Cognitive Studies at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
and within a year became a lecturer.
After four years with the Center, Norman took a position as an associate professor in the Psychology Department at
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
(UCSD). Norman applied his training as an engineer and computer scientist, and as an experimental and mathematical psychologist, to the emerging discipline of
cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...
. Norman eventually became founding chair of the Department of Cognitive Science and chair of the Department of Psychology.
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.
Together with psychologist
Tim Shallice, Norman proposed a framework of attentional control of
executive functioning. One of the components of the Norman-Shallice model is the
supervisory attentional system.
Cognitive engineering career
Norman made the transition from cognitive science to
cognitive engineering by entering the field as a consultant and writer. His article "The truth about Unix: ''The user interface is horrid''" in ''
Datamation
''Datamation'' is a computer magazine that was published in print form in the United States between 1957 and 1998, '' (1981) catapulted him to a position of prominence in the computer world. Soon after, his career took off outside of academia, although he still remained active at UCSD until 1993. Norman continued his work to further
human-centered design by serving on numerous university and government advisory boards such as the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...
(DARPA). He currently serves on numerous committees and advisory boards like at Motorola, the
Toyota National College of Technology,
TED Conference,
Panasonic
is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturer, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Japan. It was founded in 1918 as in Fukushima-ku, Osaka, Fukushima by Kōnosuke Matsushita. The company was incorporated in 1935 and renamed and c ...
, ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
'' and many more.
Norman was also part of a select team flown in to investigate the 1979
Three Mile Island nuclear accident.
In 1993, Norman left UCSD to join
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Co ...
, initially as an Apple Fellow as a User Experience Architect (the first use of the phrase "
User Experience
User experience (UX) is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency. Improving user experience is important to most companies, designers, a ...
" in a job title), and then as the Vice President of the
Advanced Technology Group. He later worked for
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
before joining with
Jakob Nielsen to form the
Nielsen Norman Group in 1998. He returned to academia as a professor of
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
, where he was co-director of the
Segal Design Institute until 2010. In 2014, he returned to UCSD to become director of the newly established The Design Lab housed at the
.
Awards and honors
Norman has received many awards for his work. He received two
honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
s, one "S. V. della laurea ad honorem" in Psychology from the
University of Padua
The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...
in 1995 and one doctorate in Industrial Design and Engineering from
Delft University of Technology
The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...
.
In 2001, he was inducted as a
Fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
of the
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
(ACM) and won the Rigo Award from
SIGDOC, the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on the Design of Communication (DOC). In 2006, he received the
Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science.
In 2009, Norman was elected an Honorary Fellow of the
Design Research Society
The Design Research Society (DRS), founded in the United Kingdom in 1966,Tovey, M. (2011). Researching Design Education. In E. Bohemia, B. Borja de Mozota & L. Collina (Eds.)Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium for Design Education Resea ...
. In 2011 Norman was elected a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
for the development of design principles based on human cognition that enhance the interaction between people and technology.
Nielsen Norman Group
Norman, alongside colleague
Jakob Nielsen, formed the Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) in 1998.
The company's vision is to help designers and other companies move toward more human-centered products and internet interactions, and are pioneers in the field of
user experience design
User experience design (UX design, UXD, UED, or XD), upon which is the centralized requirements for "User Experience Design Research" (also known as UX Design Research), defines the experience a user would go through when interacting with a compa ...
.
User-centered design
In 1986, Norman introduced the term "user-centered design" in the book ''User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-computer Interaction''
'','' a book edited by him and by Stephen W. Draper. In the introduction of the book, the idea that designers should aim their efforts at the people who will use the system is introduced:
People are so adaptable that they are capable of shouldering the entire burden of accommodation to an artifact, but skillful designers make large parts of this burden vanish by adapting the artifact to the users.
In his book ''
The Design of Everyday Things'', Norman uses the term "user-centered design" to describe design based on the needs of the user, leaving aside what he deems secondary considerations, such as
aesthetics
Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...
. 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 the
seven stages of action. The principles and characteristics outlined in the book are relatable to the field of product design, both in a physical and a digital context.
In his book ''The Things that Make Us Smart: Defending the Human Attribute in the Age of the Machine'', Norman uses the term "cognitive artifacts" to describe "those artificial devices that maintain, display, or operate upon information in order to serve a representational function and that affect human cognitive performance". Similar to his ''The Design of Everyday Things'' book, Norman argues for the development of machines that fit our minds, rather than have our minds be conformed to the machine.
On the Revised Edition of ''The Design of Everyday Things,'' Norman backtracks on his previous claims about aesthetics and removed the term User-Centered Design altogether. In the preface of the book, he says :
The first edition of the book focused upon making products understandable and usable. The total experience of a product covers much more than its usability: aesthetics, pleasure, and fun play critically important roles. There was no discussion of pleasure, enjoyment and emotion, Emotion is so important that I wrote an entire book, Emotional Design, about the role it plays in design.
He instead currently uses the term human-centered design and defines it as: "an approach that puts human needs, capabilities, and behavior first, then designs to accommodate those needs, capabilities, and ways of behaving."
Don Norman Design Award
The Don Norman Design Award organization was instituted and the inaugural awards bearing his name were announced on September 13, 2024. The DNDA Summit will be held on November 14 and 15, 2024 in San Diego, California.
Bibliography
He is on numerous educational, private, and public sector advisory boards, including the editorial board of ''
Encyclopædia Britannica
The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
''. 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. This is a list of select publications.
Psychology books
*
*
*
*
Usability books
*Norman, Donald A. (2023) ''Design for a Better World.''
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Other publications
*''The Trouble with Unix: The User Interface is Horrid.''
The trouble with UNIX: The user interface is horrid
/ref> Datamation
''Datamation'' is a computer magazine that was published in print form in the United States between 1957 and 1998, , 27 (12) 1981, November, pp. 139–150. Reprinted in Pylyshyn, Z. W., & Bannon, L. J., eds. Perspectives on the Computer Revolution, 2nd revised edition, Hillsdale, NJ: Ablex, 1989.
*''Direct manipulation interfaces'' (1985) about direct manipulation interfaces 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)
* Combining his books, ''Design of Everyday Things'', ''Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles'', ''Things That Make Us Smart'', with various technical reports.
See also
* Human action cycle
* Human-computer interaction
* Human-centered design
* User-centered design
User-centered design (UCD) or user-driven development (UDD) is a framework of processes in which usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks and workflow of a product, service or brand are given extensive attention at each stag ...
* Interaction design
Interaction design, often abbreviated as IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." While interaction design has an interest in form (similar to other design fields), its main area of foc ...
References
External links
*
*
Publications by Donald Norman
from Interaction-Design.org
* Video
Franklin Institute Award on Donald Norman
from April 2006 by the Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...
*Video:
*Video
Living With Complexity
April 2011 talk at Stanford University
An evening of UX Hacking with Don Norman at Stanford" (Stanford University, December 17, 2013)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, Donald
1935 births
Living people
Apple Inc. employees
Apple Fellows
MIT School of Engineering alumni
University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
Harvard University faculty
University of California, San Diego faculty
Northwestern University faculty
American computer scientists
2001 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Human–computer interaction researchers
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Design researchers
Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows
20th-century American non-fiction writers
The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science laureates