What Don Norman thinks about design
Cognitive scientist and designer; author of The Design of Everyday Things; co-founder of Nielsen Norman Group; former vice president at Apple; founding director of the Design Lab at UC San Diego.
Don Norman did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
Filter design · Newest first
Only Don Norman on design. See everyone on design
23 dated positions, 2009 to 2023, in their own words. Our reading of what Don Norman has said — not written or endorsed by them.
-
Their wordsThese are important principles, but they ignore the problems of sustainability, inequity, and bias. In addition, the emphasis is usually on the immediate issues, not the long-term impact. In other words, they describe the way we did things in the past, not the issues in this book, and not the way we need to do things in the future.
- 4 years earlier
-
Their wordsHuman error is blamed for over 90 percent of industrial and automobile accidents. It is the leading cause of aviation accidents, and medical error is reported to be the third-largest cause of death in the entire United States. Horrifying? Yes, but why do we label it “human error”? It is design error.
-
Their wordsInstead of having people do the parts of a task that machines are bad at, let’s reverse the process and have machines do the parts that people are bad at. Instead of requiring people to work on technology’s terms, require the machines to work on human terms.
- 3 days earlier
-
Their wordsSolve the fundamental, underlying issues, not the symptoms. We recommend starting with field studies and observations of actual practice (an applied ethnography). Ask “why?” at each issue.
↗The Four Fundamental Principles of Human-Centered Design and Applicationjnd.org
-
Their wordsIf the people can decide, even if they come up with the same, identical solution as the expert people or machines, they will trust them, implement them, and abide with them.
↗The Four Fundamental Principles of Human-Centered Design and Applicationjnd.org
- 1 day earlier
-
Their wordsWe challenge this approach. It encourages design by committee and infuses a superficial sense of collaboration that leads to compromises and weakens ideas. Our view, the product of years of studies of and participation in innovation projects, is that effective teams do not defer critical reflection; they create through criticism.
- 5 years earlier
-
Their wordsAffordances control what actions are possible. For designers, signifiers are far more important. Signifiers are how communication takes place, how one signals the appropriate controls and operations.
-
Our readingDiscoverability and understanding are two of the most important characteristics of good design
Their wordsTwo of the most important characteristics of good design are discoverability and understanding.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsIt is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsHuman-centered design is a design philosophy. It means starting with a good understanding of people and the needs that the design is intended to meet.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsGood design requires good communication, especially from machine to person, indicating what actions are possible, what is happening, and what is about to happen. Communication is especially important when things go wrong.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsAffordances determine what actions are possible. Signifiers communicate where the action should take place. We need both.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsConceptual models are valuable in providing understanding, in predicting how things will behave, and in figuring out what to do when things do not go as planned. A good conceptual model allows us to predict the effects of our actions.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsNo matter how brilliant the product, if people cannot use it, it will receive poor reviews. It is up to the designer to provide the appropriate information to make the product understandable and usable.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Our readingThe most effective way to help people remember something is to make remembering it unnecessary
Their wordsThe most effective way of helping people remember is to make it unnecessary.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsPhysical limitations are well understood by designers; mental limitations are greatly misunderstood.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsIt should not be possible for one simple error to cause widespread damage.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Their wordsThe most important principle for taming complexity is to provide a good conceptual model, which has already been well covered in this book.
↗The Design of Everyday Things (Basic Books, 2013, revised and expanded edition)books.google.com All 15 from this book
-
Our reading · no longer heldDesign thinking is a myth: designers have no special creative thought process, and the term is a public relations label for good old-fashioned creative thinking.
No longer holdsAs a result, I have changed my mind: Design Thinking really is special. Alas, it isn't embraced by all designers, but where it exists, it is powerful.
SaidSince my essay was posted, I keep encountering people who jump to solutions and who fail to question assumptions—engineers, business people, and yes, designers (and design students). These encounters made me reconsider.
-
Their wordsI was correct in my original article: what we call design thinking is practiced in some form or other by all great thinkers, whether in literature or art, music or science, engineering or business. But the difference is that in design, there is an attempt to teach it as a systematic, practice-defining method of creative innovation.
-
Their wordsIt is by questioning the obvious that we make great progress. This is where breakthroughs come from. We need to question the obvious, to reformulate our beliefs, and to redefine existing solutions, approaches, and beliefs. That is design thinking.
- 3 years earlier
-
Their wordsDesign thinking is a public relations term for good, old-fashioned creative thinking. It is not restricted to designers. Great artists, great engineers, great scientists all break out of the boundaries. Great designers are no different.
- 7 months earlier
-
Their wordsI’ve come to a disconcerting conclusion: design research is great when it comes to improving existing product categories but essentially useless when it comes to new, innovative breakthroughs.