I wanted to look into Don Norman because Kyle said that we all should and Norman is someone everyone should be aware of, but I wanted to become more than aware. I wanted to take a good look at his life, his beliefs in design and his books that he is so well known for, hoping that his greatness would rub off on me a little bit.
Who is Don Norman?
He is known as the father of user experience. Donald Arthur Norman is an American researcher, professor, and author. Norman is the director of The Design Lab at University of California, San Diego. He is best known for his books on design, especially The Design of Everyday Things. Why is he known as the father of UX you may ask well here is why, ‘Donald Norman arguably deserves the most credit as a pioneer in UX, as he is the one who coined the term “User Experience.’ Norman is also a psychologist and usability consultant who’s worked with Apple, HP, and the Nielsen Norman Group which I have previously looked at.
I wanted to understand what design was to Norman and found this:
- ‘Design is concerned with how things work, how they are controlled, and the nature of the interaction between people and technology. When done well, the results are brilliant, pleasurable products. When done badly, the products are unusable, leading to great frustration and irritation’.
This was a segment from his book ‘The design of everyday things’ and this proved to me that the book itself would be priceless, his knowledge on the world of design as the father of UX is unmatched.
‘A good design should put an emphasis on utility, not only with beauty’
Within this book Norman also discussed some key points that I must write about, he talked about the Five Fundamental Principles of Interaction.
- Affordances
- Constraints
- Mappings
- Conceptual Models [Consistency]
- Feedback
‘The design should keep users informed of actions or interpretations, changes of state or condition, and errors or exceptions that are relevant and of interest to the user through clear, concise, and unambiguous language familiar to users”
His book is so well loved and appreciated and for good reason, it should be in the collection of every good designer, Norman strips it back to basics and elevates the world of design to another level. He talks about human centred design and how important it is saying ‘it is a step above user-centred design’, this was eye-opening to me and made me realise just how important human centred design is to all big designers out there. His book ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ is a powerful primer on how — and why — some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them. Norman also how discusses how design serves as the communication between object and user, and how to optimise that conduit of communication in order to make the experience of using the object pleasurable.
Overall this research into the father of UX has got me inspired to focus on human-centred design and to focus on how design serves as the communication between object and user. I feel like if I always keep in mind the user then I can’t go wrong. I want my products to be enjoyable for the user and a pleasurable experience, like Norman I must follow the principles of design for this to happen, and from reading about his principles I feel more educated and aware of them now in my own work.