Design in the 21st Century

Join Don Norman for a discussion of  the new demands upon the discipline of design for the 21st century. Design is a way of thinking of addressing the fundamental issues (solving the right problem), of treating the role of people and humanity in the complex sociotechnical systems that define our era. We are also hampered by a technology-centered perspective that forces people to be subservient to the requirements of our technology instead of building around the capabilities and needs of people. This framework is explicit for some people and implicit and subconscious for others.  The goal in this talk is to spend the first half of the time to set up the framework and then to leave the rest for discussion.

Don Norman is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cognitive Science Society, ACM, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and Design Research Society. He is an IDEO fellow, and a trustee of IIT’s Institute of design. He serves on company boards, Founder and Director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego. He was co-founder and first chair of the Cognitive Science Department and prior to that, chair of Psychology. He has been a Vice President of Advanced technology at Apple and an executive at HP. He is co-founder and principal of the Nielsen Norman group,has honorary degrees from Delft, Padua, and San Marino, the lifetime achievement award from ACM’s Computer-Human Interaction group, and the President’s lifetime achievement award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He has published 20 books translated into 20 languages including Emotional Design and Design of Everyday Things. He can be found at www.jnd.org