#78 | Don Norman | Design for a Better World: Sustainability, Meaning, Humanity & Future.
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The Guest
Don Norman is a renowned name in the field of design, with over four decades of experience in academia and industry. He is the founding director of the University of California Design Lab (now emeritus-retired) and was responsible for establishing and leading the lab in its mission to promote human-centered design and innovation.
Before his current role, Don served as a vice president at Apple and an executive at HP and DEC. He is widely known for his books, including "The Design of Everyday Things" and "Emotional Design," which have been translated into over 20 languages.
In addition to his academic and industry work, Don is a co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, a user experience consultancy that helps companies create more usable and effective products. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Don's work focuses on human-centered design, which emphasizes understanding the needs and behaviors of people to create products and services that are intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable to use. He has been a leading voice in the field of user experience, helping to shape the way designers and engineers approach their work.
As a guest on the latest episode of DesignDrives, Don shared his insights on the importance of human-centered design and his experiences working with some of the biggest names in tech. His expertise and thought leadership have helped shape the field of design and continue to inspire the next generation of designers and innovators.
In this episode, we explore the dynamic relationship between design as a creative discipline and the systems and tools that shape this creativity, for better or for worse. We delve into the importance of customizing design processes to allow designers to focus on the most impactful aspects of their work, including the strategic and psychological components of problem-solving.
Our guest, Don Norman, a renowned design expert with over four decades of experience in academia and industry, shares his insights on a range of design topics. We discuss the challenges designers face in avoiding quick assumptions and solutions when tackling design briefs and how to choose the most effective methods for problem-solving.
Don also offers guidance on incorporating principles of visual perception and affordance into the design process, as well as creating artificial friction in designs.
In addition, we explore the importance of designing for a better world and the role that sustainability and humanity-centeredness play in this process.
Don shares his thoughts on how designers can effectively communicate the value of design to business stakeholders and the common mistakes to avoid.
We also discuss the need for a different kind of design in the fifth industrial revolution and the arbitrary and artificial measurements that govern our lives.
Tune in to this episode for an engaging conversation on design's impact on the world and how designers can play a crucial role in shaping a better future.
In the episode, we jump into:
Design Industry / Role of designers - how is it changing?
What do you think are key challenges for people to communicate the “value of design” to a business stakeholders? Common mistakes you see? What did you learn about framing design for business stakeholders?
How do you try to balance challenging the status quo and also pushing forward existing initiatives?
“Human behavior brought our world to the brink, human behavior can save us.”
Why do we need to design a better world and what is broken?
"If design got us into today’s mess, can design get us out?”
Why if Design is to Save the World, It Must Be a Different Kind of Design
"Almost Everything I see is Artificial"
"Almost Everything Artificial Has Been Designed"
And plenty more!
Thank you very much for your time and knowledge, Don!