The godfather of UX

“Donald” Don Norman aka the “godfather of UX”. An award-winning American researcher, professor, and author of several well-known books such as “The Design of Everyday Things” and “Emotional Design”.

He was the man behind the words we use today such as “User experience”, “Human-computer interaction” and made the term “Human-centered design” widely known.

Norman is one of the world’s most influential designers, with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Psychology. He has a deeper understanding of design and psychology and uses that to teach people through his company Nielsen Norman Group, with a vision to help and teach designers and companies, giving them a deeper understanding of Human-centered design as well as User experience. Norman is, on the other hand, technically self-taught in the field of design.

The term “User-Centered Design” was introduced to the public in 1986, from the book “User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-computer Interaction“, edited by him and Stephen Draper. Even though the term itself was made by the computer scientist Rob Kling in 1977, Norman made the term widely popular from his book, and later on, with the help of psychology taught people about the importance of good design, as well as the consequences of bad design.

Norman is as of today very well known for his education and knowledge about User-Centered Design. Attending talks, uploading videos, spreading the knowledge in various forms to teach and create a better future. For the people, the designers, to understand the fundamentals of creating a practical human-centered design with the use of psychology and studying behavior, to make solutions for everyday problems.

While Norman is known for his books, terms, and achievements. While actively working towards educating people about the importance of good design, he’s also working towards a better environment.

“Climate change is a symptom to a problem that designers had a hand in creating” – Don Norman

In an article, on a website design week, written by Molly Long in October of 2021. We get an insight into what his views are on how we can improve our environment with good design. It’s said in the article that Norman believes that climate change is a symptom of a problem designers had a hand in creating. Norman believes it’s our responsibility as designers to educate ourselves in the history of design and machinery and not re-create the mistakes we made and make more efficient designs for the environment looking at the long-run effect it has, for the users, the society, how the product is being used is the impact it may have for the future.