Don Norman's jnd website

News:

• Change of status. After six enjoyable years, I'm retiring from Northwestern University effective June 2010. Retiring? Well, I'll be busier than ever, but this will let me travel more, stay longer, and be more spontaneous (but I'm pretty booked until early 2011).
  
• Business Week  rated both the Northwestern University  MMM program in Design and Operations and the Industrial Design department at KAIST as two of the best Design Schools in the world. I co-direct the former and teach in the latter. Neat.
• Design of Everyday Things, Second Edition (DOET-2). Once Living with Complexity is in its final form (see below), I intend to update DOET (as DOET-2). The principles have not changed, but the examples in DOET-1 are stale. Since DOET-1, much has happened that can inform, modify, and broaden the discussions. I'm looking for good examples.Timeless. I want DOET-2 to last 20 - 30 years, so  examples have to be relevant decades from now. Doors never get obsolete.
  

Welcome to jnd.org:

Welcome to jnd.org, home for writings, musing, reviews, and contact information. I post my publications (as permitted), chapters from my books, book reviews, and essays. What does "jnd" stand for? jnd is a technical term in psychophysics, which was my first field in psychology: jnd = just noticeable difference. See What is jnd?

I spend half my time with the Nielsen Norman group consulting for industry to produce enjoyable and effective products and services (see below), half my time teaching in two programs at Northwestern University, a one-year graduate program leading to an MS degree in Engineering Design and Innovation (MS-EDI) and in MMM, the two-year joint MBA / Engineering degree program between Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and Northwestern Engineering that focuses upon Design and Operations, half my time serving on advisory boards for companies, and half my time writing and publishing. And two months each year as a Visiting Professor of Industrial Design at KAIST, in Daejeon, South Korea. (This list  demonstrates why I wish to reduce my formal activities.)

Living with Complexity: to be published Fall, 2010 (MIT Press)

The world and our activities are inherently complex, so our tools must match that complexity. Complexity is necessary: it is confusion and unnecessary complication that should be eliminated. This book is an argument in favor of properly designed complexity, against the simple-minded notion that things should be simple. Simplicity is boring. We need richness and depth in our lives.

The world gets ever more complex, yet we cope. How? We manage because we are not alone. We work in groups and the interaction is interesting and important. Moreover, understanding defeats complexity. To most of us, the cockpit of a commercial airline is a confusing jumble of dials and controls. To the expert, the cockpit is comforting, familiar, and understandable. Knowledge makes the difference.

Translations of my published books keep appearing. A Portuguese (Editora Rocco, Brazil) translation of "Emotional Design" is out as are Japanese and Taiwanese translations of "Design of Future Things." I've seen Korean and Chinese editions of "Design of Future Things." Translations in Brazil,  Italy, Korea, and Spain are underway. Greece is working on a translation of "Design of Everyday Things," which will make it the twelfth country to publish it.

Company Advising: reQall

I am officially empowered as "Chief Mentor" of reQall. Call reQall from any phone and speak whatever you want to remember. It then shows up in your email as  text, as a voice message, and on a website. Even automatically on your calendar. We worked hard to make it really simple, to eliminate all the features that came to mind. No features, therefore no fuss. Simple and powerful. Developed by a team, some of whom worked with me at Apple. Neat. (The iPhone implementation is cool. I myself use the special Blackberry application.)  It is also a teamwork tool. Free. It works smoothly with Evernote, to increase the power of both (read the CNet discussion).

reQall is also an active memory assistant, using time or your location to remind you. Read all about it in a review by David Pogue in the New York Times.

Company Advising: Mint

An automatic floor cleaner (for hard floors only). I'm an adviser to Evolution Robotics: Mint is their latest, cool release. See the You-Tube Video. And here is the website.

Schedule

To schedule me for talks, interviews, or consulting, see Press Kit.

My Physical Location (except for talks listed below):

• Mid-December 2009 - End of March, 2010: Palo Alto, CA (Silicon Valley).
• April, 2010 l - Mid June, 2010: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (Chicago)
• Min-June 2010 - September, 2010: Palo Alto, CA (Silicon Valley).
• September 2010 - November 2010 (dates still tentative): KAIST, Daejeon, S. Korea.
• October 2010: East Asia. (Japan, Taiwan, China, ... )
  

Conferences of general interest:

• February 24 - 27, 2010. Human-Computer Interaction Symposium. Snow Mountain, Colorado (open only to members of member organizations).
• April 10-15, 2010: Annual SIGCHI Conference: Human Factors in Computing Systems. Atlanta, GA. (I may not be able to attend because of my teaching commitments at Northwestern.)
• October 4 - 7, 2010. Design and Emotion Society Conference, Chicago, Illinois.
• July 11 - 15, 2011. INTERACT conference on HCI. Lisbon, Portugal.

In Praise of Good Design

the complete set is in "In praise of good design." Send products to praise to

No bashing -- just praise. Physical products preferred.

Recent Book Reviews

(the complete set is in "Recommended readings.")

Two Books on Technology: "The Nature of Technology" & "Technology Matters"

Technology is important to all of us, and it is critical to understand the role it plays in society. Society, culture, human behavior and technology lay a complex intertwined role together, each mutually influencing the other, so the evolution of each is affected by the evolution of the others.

The Lie Detectors

Many scientists and tinkerers are driven to discover a machine that will tell us when someone is lying. Unfortunately, many have claimed success, sufficiently so that the machine called a "lie detector" is in common use in police stations, government agencies, and even by some company employment agencies. The lack of scientific evidence for their accuracy is irrelevant. How does this happen? The story is a fascinating one: Ken Alder, a historian of science at Northwestern University tells it wonderfully. Highly recommended.

The measure of all things

Measurement is of critical importance to science, but as Ken Alder shows in this informative book, scientific activities cannot be separated from the personalities of those involved and the political events of the times. Alder is a historian of technology at Northwestern University who writes of mementoes scientific events with an easy to read simplicity that makes the story fascinating as well as a deep examination of the issues. This story tells of the quest to measure the circumference of the earth by a laborious effort of physical surveying by triangulation from visible site to visible site the from Northern France to Spain (and then basically multiplying by the appropriate factor). These events took place just prior to, during, and after the French revolution, which greatly interfered with the quest. So some fudging of data resulted and supposedly open data collection sets were kept secret. Lots of people got into the act, even Napoleon.

Recent Essays

(The complete set is in "Essays.") (Updated January 11, 2010)

Technology First, Needs Last

I'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. I reached this conclusion through examination of a range of product innovations, most especially looking at those major conceptual breakthroughs that have had huge impact upon society as well as the more common, mundane small, continual improvements. Call one conceptual breakthrough, the other incremental. Although we would prefer to believe that conceptual breakthroughs occur because of a detailed consideration of human needs, especially fundamental but unspoken hidden needs so beloved by the design research community, the fact is that it simply doesn't happen. New conceptual breakthroughs are invariably driven by the development of new technologies The new technologies, in turn, inspire technologists to invent things, not sometimes because they themselves dream of having their capabilities, but many times simply because they can build them. In other words, grand conceptual inventions happen because technology has finally made them possible. Do people need them? That question is answered over the next several decades as the technology moves from technical demonstration, to product, to failure, or perhaps to slow acceptance in the commercial world where slowly, after considerable time, the products and applications are jointly evolve, and slowly the need develops.

THE TRANSMEDIA DESIGN CHALLENGE: Co-Creation

We live in exciting times. Finally, we are beginning to understand that pleasure and fun are important components of life, that emotion is not a bad thing, and that learning, education and work can all benefit through encouraging pleasure and fun. Up to now, a primary goal of product and service design has been to provide useful functions and results. We should not lose track of these goals, but now that we are well on our way to doing that for an amazing variety of goods and services, it is time to make sure that they are pleasurable as well. Not only does this require emotions to be a major component of design thinking, but we must incorporate action as well, actions that use the whole body in movement, rhythm, and purpose. New technologies allow creativity to blossom, whether for reasons silly or sublime. Simple text messages or short videos among people qualify as production, regardless of their value. This new movement is about participating and creating, invoking the creative spirit. This is what the transmedia experience should be about. All of these experiences are allowing people to feel more like producers and creators rather than passive consumers or spectators. The new design challenge is to create true participatory designs coupled with true multi-media immersion that reveal new insights and create true novel experiences. We all participate, we all experience. We all design, we all partake. But much of this is meaningless: how do we provide richness and depth, enhanced through the active engagement of all, whether they be the originators or the recipients of the experience? How will this come to pass? What is the role in everyday life? Will this be a small portion or will it dominate? Will it even be permitted within the confines of contemporary commercialism? Those are the significant design challenges.

When Security Gets in the Way

If we ever are to have systems with adequate security and privacy that people are willing to use, then the three fields of Security, Privacy, and Usability must work together as a team. Without usable systems, the security and privacy simply disappears as people defeat the processes in order to get their work done. We have a wonderful design challenge before us. It is time to make systems that are more secure, that enhance privacy, and that are still eminently usable. We need systems that are effective at performing their tasks, while providing high quality of user experience at reasonable cost. The solution is going to require sensible analyses, the development of appropriate technologies probably including automation, enhanced interaction protocols and interfaces with better feedback, and the development and continual communication to support the development of an appropriate conceptual models. The only way this will happen is if all parties work together as a team from the start. With notable exceptions, the security and privacy concerns have been addressed by the security and privacy experts, coupled with the arbitrary rules and policies of system administrators, where these concerns have been tacked on to existing systems as afterthoughts.

Designing the Infrastructure

It is time to work on infrastructure. It threatens to dominate our lives with ugliness, frustration, and work. We need to spend more time on the designs for infrastructure. We need to make it more attractive, more accessible, and easier to maintain. Infrastructure is intended to be hidden, to provide the foundation for everyday life. If we do not respond, it will dominate our lives, preventing us attending to our priory concerns and interests and instead, just keeping ahead of the maintenance demands.

Compliance and Tolerance

Our computer systems are still far too intolerant of everyday human behavior. The systems demand strict adherence to their requirements. This essay recommends changing the battleground. Bring it back to human terms: ask for compliance and tolerance. Compliance and tolerance means to allow inconsequential deviation from a rigid format. Allow dates and telephone numbers in any form that a person would understand. Allow flexibility, allow tolerance for small deviations. No dramatic scientific breakthroughs are required, simply a different philosophy. Those are new concepts for designers, but concepts that are easy to understand. Ask our engineers, programmers, and fellow designers to aim at compliant systems, tolerant systems.

This Website

This website was selected for inclusion in the National Science Digital Library Report for Math, Engineering, and Technology. August, 2002

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