I've had numerous careers and have retired twice: each retirement simply frees me from the previous responsibilities and makes me even busier than before. I now live in Palo Alto, CA, except that my travel schedule means I am seldom there (see it on the home page of this website, jnd.org). I've become an IDEO fellow, I just got elected to the National Academy of Engineering, I write a column for core77.com, I write books, I give keynote talks, and I serve on company and organization boards. I rejoined the Board of Trustees of IIT's Institute of Design in Chicago.

I have increased my executive consulting with the Nielsen Norman Group, and lecturing at companies, universities and conferences around the world. My latest book is "Living with Complexity" was published in December 2010.

Biographical sketches are available as a Microsoft Word file, and as an academic curriculum vitae (an Adobe PDF File), which includes a complete list of my publications.

NN/g: User Advocacy is the Passion, Human-centered Design the Means

Jakob Nielsen and I formed the Nielsen Norman group in 1998 to help companies create better products, services, and websites. Bruce Tognazzini (Tog) joined us a bit later: in the photo, the three of us are lined up in this order: Tognazzini, Norman, and Nielsen.

We are user advocates. We help companies move toward human-centered products and internet interaction, the better to play a major role in the new world of customer-centered goods and services.

Jakob works on websites and other internet products and applications. I am most interested in consumer products. Most of my consulting is at the executive level, for the biggest problem with the development of services and products has to do with company organization and culture. Invariably I start off assessing the technologies and end up recommending administrative and organizational change. My experience ranges from household goods to human error and safety -- I have worked on nuclear power plant control rooms, aviation, and hospital systems. I bring to bear considerable practical experience as a VP at Apple, and executive at HP, and experience at startups ranging from executive, to advisor, to board of directors. And to the experience a theoretical grounding in cognitive science, computer science, and design, as well as multiple years co-directing a dual-degree MBA program at Northwestern University (students got a Kellogg MBA plus an engineering degree: I was the director from the school of engineering, teaching design thinking to the MBAs).

The Nielsen Norman group shares a common goal: by focusing upon people, we create products and services that enhance customer satisfaction, that maintain relationships, and increase sales.

Success in human-centered design requires giving equal weight to user experience, marketing and technology: The result is increased customer satisfaction, coupled with lower costs and rapid time to market. The major barriers to success are not technological: they are social, political, and organizational.

How to Contact the Nielsen Norman Group and its Principals

NN/g Corporate Web Site

Silicon Valley, California USA
info at nngroup.com
http://www.nngroup.com

NOTE: This is the corporate address. To send physical, postal mail to me, email me first (norman at nngroup.com) to get the correct mailing address. Physical (post office) mail and packages sent to the corporate address will be forwarded to me, but it may add between a few days to a month to the delivery. (We all work out of our homes: I almost never go to the “corporate office.”)

Don Norman

Palo Alto (San Francisco), California USA
send email to me at norman at nngroup.com
http://www.jnd.org

Jakob Nielsen

Fremont, California USA
nielsen at nngroup.com
http://www.useit.com

Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini

Woodside, California USA
info at nngroup.com
http://www.asktog.com