Don Norman's jnd.org / user advocacy and human-centered design

In addition to my writing and my consulting work with the Nielsen Norman group, I teach in two programs at Northwestern University: a one-year graduate program leading to an MS degree in Engineering Design and Innovation (MS-EDI) and the two-year joint MBA / Engineering degree program between Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and Northwestern Engineering: Design and Operations. MMM is an existing two-year program leading to two degrees: an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a Master of Engineering Management from the McCormick School of Engineering that emphasizes Design & Operations: design cannot succeed without efficient operations behind the scenes. Operations are always in support or products or services, so the pair makes huge sense. Business Week has already recognized this program as one of the best Design + Business programs in the world. (I co-direct MMM.)

MS-EDI trains engineers to understand design thinking and therefore to work constructively with designers (instead of the mutual unintelligibility that now takes place). MMM trains managers, GMs, and eventual CEOs who understand how to integrate design and operations into a systems approach to management. Design thinking is a way of breaking through established thought patterns and providing innovative solutions, whether on the factory floor, the design studio, or the boardroom.

Books

The Design of Future Things is about the ever-increasing role of automation in our homes and automobiles. Sample chapters are in the "Books" section of this website. (Find the Design of Future Things at Amazon.com )

Consulting

I don’t normally talk about my consulting work, but I’m particularly proud of two: Tango and reQall.

Tango: H&R Block’s new income tax program Wikipedia says:

Tango by H&R Block includes integrated and continuous one-touch access to tax professionals, combined with a vertical, modern design for an animated, intuitive and interactive tax preparation experience. Tango creates a new category of aided online tax preparation, the first of its kind based on Don Norman’s concept of emotional design.

(No, I didn’t write that entry.) It is a tax program with an attitude. The creative team did indeed listen to me, not only about “Emotional Design” but also about my other powerful rules: “no error messages,” "no navigation" (including no back button): wow, was it difficult getting people to understand those two rules. When Tango finds questionable entries or missing information, it uses this as a means of helping and guiding. Moreover, you enter information whenever you wish to: skip over stuff when you wish to. Tango keeps track. No navigation. Just go to where you want to go. Initial reviews of the interaction are great. (The calculators on the H&R Block website follow the same principles.)

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. And wait until you see the next, still secret version!) It is also a teamwork tool. And it is free. (They make money on the volume.)

Schedule

(Some consulting engagements and board meeting are not shown below, both because they are not public and because confidentiality agreements often preclude mentioning them.).

In Praise of Good Design

(The complete set is in "In praise of good design.") Send suggestions to "products at jnd.org". No bashing -- just praise. Note, I'm not interested in good or bad websites (I leave those to Jakob Nielsen), just physical products or services.

Recent Book Reviews

Recent Essays

The Psychology of Waiting Lines

This is an abstract for a PDF file, "The Psychology of Waiting Lines." Waiting is an inescapable part of life, but that doesn’t mean we enjoy it. But if the lines are truly inescapable, what can be done to make them less painful? Although there is a good deal of practical knowledge, usually known within the heads of corporate managers, very little has been published about the topic. One paper provides the classic treatment: David Maister’s The Psychology of Waiting Lines (1985). Maister suggested several principles for increasing the pleasantness of waiting. Although his paper provides an excellent start, it was published in 1985 and there have been considerable advances in our knowledge since then. In this section, I bring the study of waiting lines up to date, following the spirit of Maister’s original publication, but with considerable revision in light of modern findings. I suggest eight design principles, starting with the “emotions dominate” and ending with the principle that “memory of an event is more important than the experience.” Examples of design solutions include double buffering, providing clear conceptual models of the events with continual feedback, providing positive memories and even why one might deliberately induce waits. These principles apply to all services, not just waiting in lines. Details will vary from situation to situation, industry to industry, but the fundamentals are, in truth, the fundamentals of sociable design for waiting lines, for products, and for service.

Sociable Design - Introduction

This is an abstract for the attached PDF file, "Sociable Design". Whether designing the rooftop of a building or the rear end of a home or business appliance, sociable design considers how the design will impact everyone: not just the one, intended person standing in front, but also all the rest of society that interacts. One person uses a computer: the rest of us are at the other side of the desk or counter, peering at the ugly rear end, with wires spilling over like entrails. The residents of a building may never see its roof, but those who live in adjoining buildings may spend their entire workday peering at ugly asphalt, shafts and ventilating equipment. Support for groups is the hallmark of sociable technology. Groups are almost always involved in activities, even when the other people are not visible. All design has a social component: support for this social component, support for groups must always be a consideration. Sociable design is not just saying “please” and “thank you.” It is not just providing technical support. It is also providing convivial working spaces, plus the time to make use of them. Sociable technology must support the four themes of communication, presentation, support for groups, and troubleshooting. How these are handled determines whether or not we will find interaction to be sociable. People learn social skills. Machines have to have them designed into them. Sometimes even worse than machines, however, are services, where even though we are often interacting with people, the service activities are dictated by formal rule books of procedures and processes, and the people we interact with can be as frustrated and confused as we are. This too is a design issue. Design of both machines and services should be thought of as a social activity, one where there is much concern paid to the social nature of the interaction. All products have a social component. This is especially true of communication products, whether websites, personal digests (blog), audio and video postings mean to be shared, or mail digests, mailing lists, and text messaging on cellphones. Social networks are by definition social. But where the social impact is obvious, designers are forewarned. The interesting cases happen where the social side is not so obvious.

Simplicity Is Not the Answer

Everyone wants simplicity. Everyone misses the point. Simplicity is not the goal. We do not wish to give up the power and flexibility of our technologies. We are faced with an apparent paradox, but don’t worry: good design will see us through. People want the extra power that increased features bring to a product, but they intensely dislike the complexity that results. Is this a paradox? Not necessarily. Complexity can be managed. The argument is not between adding features and simplicity, between adding capability and usability. The real issue is about design: designing things that have the power required for the job while maintaining understandability, the feeling of control, and the pleasure of accomplishment.

This Website

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

The site was recoded for Movable Type by Matthew Goddard ( ), who also maintains the site. He can be reached at webmaster at jnd.org.

Don Norman's jnd website