Donald Norman

Donald A. Norman is a professor emeritus of cognitive science at University of California, San Diego and a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University, but nowadays works mostly with cognitive science in the domain of usability engineering. He also teaches at Stanford University and is a member of the editorial board of Encyclopædia Britannica.

Norman's earlier books deal mostly with usability or with cognitive psychology, but Things That Make Us Smart also makes a few remarks of critical nature regarding our society, in particular Norman dislikes the content-less nature of television and bad museum exhibits. Lately he has tended to focus on the positive. He loves products which are enjoyable to use, a feature which he attributes to putting together emotion and design, or heart and mind. He has explained this in detail in his book Emotional Design.

He is a promoter of the concept of information appliances, which he has covered in his book The Invisible Computer.

He co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group, a consulting group on matters of usability which also includes Jakob Nielsen and Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini. Norman currently splits his time between consulting and his teaching and research at Northwestern and Stanford.

Career
Norman has a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from MIT and a Doctor of Philosophy in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a honorary degree from the University of Padua in Padua, Italy. He has been a professor of computer science (at Northwestern University), psychology and cognitive science (at University of California, San Diego). He has also worked for Apple Computer as Vice President of Apple's Advanced Technology Group and for Hewlett-Packard.

Psychology

 * Human information processing: An introduction to psychology (1975) in collaboration with Peter H. Lindsay (first author)
 * Memory and attention (1977)
 * Learning and memory (1982)

Usability

 * Direct manipulation interfaces (1985) 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)
 * The Design of Everyday Things (1988, originally under the title The Psychology of Everyday Things)
 * Turn signals are the facial expressions of automobiles (1992)
 * Things That Make Us Smart (1993)
 * The Invisible Computer (1999)
 * Emotional Design (2003)

User Centered Design
In his book "The Design of Everyday Things", originally called "The Psychology of Everyday Things" Donald A. Norman describes the psychology behind what he deems 'good' and 'bad' design through case studies and proposes design principles. He exalts the importance of design in our everyday lives, and the consequences of errors caused by bad design.

In his book, Norman use the term "user-centered design" to describe design based on the needs of the user, leaving aside what he deems secondary issues like aesthetics. User-centered design involves simplifying the structure of tasks, making things visible, getting the mapping right, exploiting the powers of constraint, and designing for error.

Other topics of the book include:


 * The Psychopathology of Everyday Things
 * The Psychology of Everyday Actions
 * Knowledge in the Head and in the World
 * Knowing What to Do
 * To Err Is Human
 * The Design Challenge