Donald A. Norman's Blog

My talk, Democratizing Design, presented April 6 at the Philosophical Society of Washington (PSW), Washington's Oldest Scientific Society, Founded 1871, with Science lectures every other Friday, has been censored.  PSW has long had a channel on YouTube where they post all their science lectures. Recently, for reasons they will not reveal, YouTube removed the PSW channel.   PSW cannot reach anyone at YouTube to be told the reason, and to explain that all their talks are science, not politics, scandalous, not inappropriate....

Recently, one of Uber's autonomous automobiles was involved in an accident where a pedestrian was killed. What lesson should we learn from this incident? The potential for autonomous vehicles to produce tremendous saving of lives and injuries while increasing our quality of life provides strong support for the eventual introduction of fully automated vehicles. Nonetheless, just as new medicines and medical devices enhance lives, but their introduction is done cautiously, with carefully controlled tests certified by a trusted, neutral agency or company (e.g., FDA for medicine, FAA for aviation, UL for home appliances), we must do the same with our autonomous vehicles.

One summary of the UC San Diego Design Lab's philosophy on healthcare is "Don't Drop the Patient."What do we mean by "Dropping the patient"? The insight -- and the catchy phrase -- comes from Dr. Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, the physician who directs the Design Lab's Center for Health. Eli observed that many medical errors and difficulties in treatment result from lapses in the medical care: Basically, it means losing track of prior thoughts, analyses, and even testing results as the patient...

One summary of the UC San Diego Design Lab's philosophy on healthcare is "Don't Drop the Patient."What do we mean by that?What do we mean by "Dropping the patent"? Basically, it means losing track of prior thoughts, analyses, and even testing results was the patient gets passed from clinician to clinician, clinic to clinic, and ward to ward. Multiple transitions and poor communication and limited oversight create a perfect setup for error, for dropping the patient.  Miscommunication is at the...

What kind of designer am I? After years of trying to explain what I do, I decided to name it: I'm a Cognitive Designer.Never heard of it? Of course not: I just made up that name.See this video for a two-minute explanationDonOn YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_co... on the Nielsen Norman group websitehttps://www.nngroup.com/videos/cognit... video....

The Bauhaus movement in Germany, roughly 1919-1933, marked a major turning point for design and its role in society. It exerted a powerful and influential role in the development of artist style. But today, for many designers, it is more of a historical curiosity than a role model. Why? What has changed? Aristotle is considered of as one of the forerunners of the scientific movement, even as his actual words and writings of science and technology are completely ignored by today's working scientists. That is how I feel about the Bauhaus movement: I am grateful for what it accomplished, but I do not find it relevant to the complex issues we face today.

I very much recommend the book. It tells some of the origins of today's design field when designers came from theater and advertising. When they thought big and had lofty ambitions.

Szerlip's book makes it clear that Norman Bel Geddes was a brilliant and creative thinker. His $7 million design of GM's Futurama exhibit for the 1939 NY World's Fair ($120 Million in today's money) revolutionized people's thinking about the future. Would I have liked him? Probably not -- but I would have respected him.

In 1963, Dennis Gabor, Nobel laureate for his invention of the holograph, said "The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented" (Gabor, 1963). This statement has become a mantra in recent times, attributed to many who are simply rephrasing Gabor. Alas, the slogan, wonderful though it may sound, is false. The most successful inventions transform the world in ways that are impossible to foresee at the time of the invention. The statement should really be yet another of...

Fully autonomous vehicles? Programmed to be safe, not to crash into me? Hey!  I can ignore it. Drive or walk the street in front of it, regardless of traffic lights.  Deliberately stand in front at an intersection, preventing it from moving forward. Hold a mirror in front of its video or laser sensors - that ought to confuse it.  What a wonderful source for entertainment, tricks, and trouble making. Yup, autonomous vehicles.Norman, D. (2017). Foreseeing an unforeseen consequence. Perspective. Summer...

Distractibility isn't a human problem; it's a design problem, writes usability expert Don Norman. We need to reverse the normal technological strategy of asking people to fill in for gaps in machine performance. Instead, we should require machines to fill in for gaps in human performance. After all, technology was invented to enhance people's lives, not the other way around. Let's build technologies that empower us, allow us to use our creative abilities, and relieve us of the stuff we are not good at.