Donald Norman: A Cantankerous Visionary

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Donald Norman A Cantankerous Visionary
The well-rounded product will enhance the heart
as well as the mind. . .
EDAE A638 Patricia Jay Fall 2007
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Biographical Sketch Who is Donald Norman?

• Cognitive scientist
• Applications engineer
• BS MIT
• MS University of Pennsylvania
• Ph.D Psychology University of Pennsylvania
• Vice President Apple Computer (1993)
• Nielsen-Norman Group (f.1998)

• Honorary degrees from The Netherlands and Italy
  in industrial design and engineering
• Faculty member at Harvard UCSD
• Present Northwestern University Professor of
  Computer Science, Psychology and Cognitive
  Science

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Publications by Donald Norman

• The Psychology of Everyday Things (1988)
• The Design of Everyday Things
• The Invisible Computer (1998)
• Emotional Design Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday
  Things (2004)
• Attractive things really do work better!

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Technology as Change

• Converging interests and technologies
• Communication
• Computation
• Entertainment
• IMMEDIATE IMPACT
• LONGTERM IMPACT

• Whats the Rush?

Technological revolutions are fast only from a
historical point of view. . .
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Where Edison Went Wrong

• Emphasis on
• Technology
• NOT
• Social impact and cultural change
• Did not matter whether or not the technology was
  superior

• The Victor Talking Machine Company
• Know your customer

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Early Adopters

• Design and ease of use irrelevant

Early IBM Computer
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First Functionality, Then Excitement
tetrabyte
gigahertz
megahertz
megabyte
kilobaud
gigabyte
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Man and His Things. . .

• One side effect of todays technologically
  advanced world is that it is not uncommon to hate
  the things we interact with. Consider the rage
  and frustration many people feel when they use
  computers. In an article on computer rage, a
  London newspaper put it this way It starts out
  with slight annoyance, then the hairs on your
  neck start to prickle and your hands begin to
  sweat. Soon you are banging your computer or
  yelling at the screen, and you might well end up
  belting the person sitting next to you.
• From Emotional Design by Donald A. Norman

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Interview with Don Norman

• 2006 interview in Israel (excerpts)
• World Usability Day
• We learn lessons from all technology.
• Emotions play a large role in how we deal with
  design.
• The issue is the total experience we have.
• Usability is not the whole picture we want to
  have an enjoyable experience and get the job
  done.
• Emotion comes first, then drives the cognitive
  system.
• If the situation is attractive, the little
  annoyances can be overlooked.

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The Fate of Things to Come. . .

• Five Rules for Communication between Machines and
  People from The Design of Future Things
• 1. Keep it Simple
• 2. Always give people a conceptual model
• 3. Give reasons.
• 4. Make people think they are in control.
• 5. Continually reassure.

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Norman on Education
Learning from the Success of Computer Games We
learn not by having our heads filled with the
great thoughts and ideas of others, but by
constructing them within our own conceptual
structures. But this construction works best
when the scenario is rigged so as to lead us to
the ideas, to force us to confront them and
understand them. This is what the successful game
designer does. This is what the successful
educator must do. . . .
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Resources

• Norman, Donald. (1998). The Invisible Computer
  Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer
  Is So Complex, and Information Appliances are the
  Answer. MIT Press. 1998.
• Norman, Donald. (2004). Emotional Design Why We
  Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. Basic Books.
• Norman, Donald. (2003). Things that Make Us
  Smart.
• Norman, Donald. (2007) The Design of Future
  Things.
• http//www.jnd.org