Brave UX: Don Norman - Design for a Better World

Don Norman shares what's important to him right now ⏰, why stupid questions matter 💡, what it means to design for a better world 🌍, and why he’s okay with changing his mind 🦉.

Highlights include:

⭐ Why are our users not who we think they are?
⭐ What needs to change and what can stay the same?
⭐ Why did it take you so long to change your focus?
⭐ Should change be incremental or wholesale?
⭐ How does design dogma distract us?

#DesignForABetterWorld #DesignLeadership #DesignEducation #DesignMethods #UX #UXDesign #BraveUX

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Who is Don Norman?

Don is the Co-Founder and a member of the Executive Committee of Future of Design Education 🎓, where he is helping to shape a global effort that will provide an in-depth, evidence-driven, academic foundation for future generations of designers.

Back In 1998, Don Co-Founded the influential Nielsen Norman Group with Jakob Nielsen 🖥️, from which he has also recently retired and was awarded the title of Principal Emeritus.

Prior to co-founding NNG, Don invested five years at Apple, starting in 1993 in the role of Apple Fellow, as a User Experience Architect - the first use of the phrase User Experience in a job title 😮 - before becoming the Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group.

Until December 2020, Don was the Founding Director of Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego 🏄‍♂️, an initiative he started in 2014 to focus on complex socio-technical issues . For his contribution he was honoured with the title Director Emeritus.

Don is a Board Member Emeritus of the Institute of Design, a former IDEO Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 🏆.

He has also spoken in boardrooms and on stages across the globe, and has written over a dozen books, of which 📙 “Design of Everyday Things” is his best known. But it his upcoming book, 📘 “Design for a Better World”, that, perhaps, he hopes will be of most consequence.

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Find Don here:

LinkedIn:   / donnorman  
Twitter:   / jnd1er  
Website: https://jnd.org/

A couple of Don’s books:

📘 Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered -
https://amzn.to/3Awhcp3

📙 The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition -
https://amzn.to/3OkPYXU

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00:00 Special message
01:38 Episode introduction
02:19 Don's introduction
05:27 What matters to you right now?
07:47 Why have you retired five times?
14:19 How is a multi-dimensional education useful?
15:31 How do you prepare people for knowledge?
20:44 Why did it take you so long to change your focus?
22:58 Why did you change your focus?
26:17 What does it mean to Design for a Better World?
28:32 How do you feel about designers using methods you now believe are wrong?
33:12 When are established design methods appropriate?
34:13 Why do we have to design differently?
36:27 What needs to change and what can stay the same?
40:21 Should change be incremental or wholesale?
47:00 How do we design for complex global problems?
52:25 Is 'design' the best word to describe what is needed to solve these problems?
53:52 How does design dogma distract us?
57:35 Is the willingness to be wrong what defines the most impactful designers?
01:00:06 Why is cross-functional collaboration essential for great design?
01:01:47 Why is 'good enough' good enough for design?
01:03:40 Why are stupid questions essential?
01:08:41 Why are our users not who we think they are?
01:12:26 How do we make more Chief Design Officers?
01:14:49 Would it make a meaningful difference if a designer was in every C-suite?
01:19:28 Who's going to pay for solving our global problems?
01:25:30 What meaningful difference do you hope to be remembered for?
01:27:35 Closing out the show - Thanks, Don!

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Hosted by Brendan Jarvis:

LinkedIn:   / brendanjarvis  
Website: https://thespaceinbetween.co.nz/
Twitter:   / brendanjarvis