Donald Norman right or wrong?

For those of you who know the work of Donald Norman; Do you agree with what he says?

and

Do you know other cognitive scientists that do not agree with him?

Cheers for all the feedback.

I appreciate Don’s work on design because its the work of a scientist, not a designer. He has hugely influenced me as a User Centerd Designer, particularly these concepts which I frequently apply to my work:

  • Affordances
    The 7 Stages of Action
    Putting knowledge into the World (vs. In the Head)
    Errors (categories of slips and mistakes)
    Visceral, Behavioral and Reflective emotional responses

Deez obviously has less use for these concepts… Is that because your emphasis is styling?

Post something that he said, so we can better agree or disagree with it. Give us somewhere to start.

Over the years Don has disagreed with himself as his ideas have evolved… Like with anything there is some I agree with, some not so much, but overall, either way, his books are great… if you can get through them… I’ve taken a lot of insights away from them and it helped me to crystalize a lot of thoughts.

good point.

I always found his books to be pretty easy reading, myself. Maybe there isn’t much ACTION but it isn’t exactly Derrida.

Yeah, they are not “difficult” reads, just dry, or not much action as you say… it would probably be difficult to work a car chase in there after talking about his tea pot collection.

they should be a part of design curriculums, from what I’ve seen a lot of schools don’t do much reading/talking/thinking about what design is, what makes good design, and how to get it done. The ones that do seem to err way on that side and miss out on the physical act of doing it… but I digress.

any other thoughts… anybody got Don Norman’s email that we can spam?

Nice Idea…heh heh

Ask and you shall recieve:

Send me favorite examples of “Why Things Don’t Work.” Send things that don’t work, but should, things that frustrate (e.g., blister packing of goods), and reasons, if you can think of any. And also send examples of good stuff: things that work wonderfully. Email them to > products@jnd.org > .

From the man himself.