McKinsey talk on Design for a Better World /https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-don-norman-designs-a-better-world The former Apple VP and University of California Design Lab director explains why leaders should take the “humanity-centered” approach and adopt sustainable technologies and business models. In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey’s Ben Sheppard chats with researcher, professor, and former executive, Don Norman, about his new book, Design for a Better World: Meaningful, Sustainable, Humanity Centered (The MIT Press, March 2023). From c ..read more

The Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) is to my biased eye, on of the best repositories of instructional material on design in the world. They offer inexpensive courses on a wide variety of topics, carefully edited and curated by the IxDF staff. Each of the items below is taken from their courses. In addition to the topic headings for each topic below, IxDF also provides a list of literature on the topic and where one can learn more. I admit that I am biased. Why am I biased? Well, I have known the founders of IxDF (Rikke Friis Dam and Mads Soegaard from the time they started. I have been a ..read more

Where did the term User Experience come from? When I joined Apple in 1993, my first title was “Apple Fellow,” which was a very high position that gave me absolute freedom to do anything I wished. (Other organizations have such similar positions, for example IBM’s IBM Fellows). After spending time wandering the halls of the company, learning about all the activities, meeting with all the senior executives, directors, managers, and most importantly of all, many of the hardworking people who actually built Apple’s products, I realized that Apple’s great reputation for ease of use and understandin ..read more

Yes, there has been much hype over the imagined powers and flaws of the new Large Language Models (e.g., Chat GPT-4), but the recent advances (that is, as of today in April 2023) indicate that there is a major transformation taking place that everyone needs to pay attention to. I call your attention to a brilliant article and an engaging video talk about the major accomplishments. I consider it extremely important that you watch the video (by one of the authors of the article) and, then, read the 150-page article if you have time. (It is very well written in everyday language: No technical kno ..read more

/https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-on-books/author-talks-don-norman-designs-a-better-world I thought that McKinsey did an excellent job of summarizing a video conversation I had with them for anyone interested in a quick overview of my book Design for a Better World. Here is how they describe the article they produced: The former Apple VP and University of California Design Lab director explains why leaders should take the “humanity-centered” approach and adopt sustainable technologies and business models. In this edition of Author Talks, McKinsey’s Ben Sheppard chats wi ..read more

I no longer give talks: I engage in discussion with the audience by answering questions.  This way, I know that my remarks are of interest to the audience. I have found that audiences really enjoy this format. They often complain that the discussion was too short. Several things are required to make this work: That I am sent some advance material (or we schedule a pre-event discussion) so that I understand the themes and topics that will be of interest. A person assigned to moderate the question asking by selecting questions from the audience (often submitted in real-time over chat). The ..read more

Science, engineering, technology: those who work in these fields never stop creating, dreaming, inventing. I know because I am one of them. I am always thinking of new ideas and new ways of doing things. When I was an engineer, I built things. When I was a psychologist and cognitive scientist, I did experiments, trying to uncover new findings, new interpretations, and new ways of thinking about the issues. When I was an industry executive and adviser to startup companies and then a designer, I thought of new methods, new tools, and new techniques. I’m still doing all of these things, except n ..read more

Fig. 1. The view from my window in San Diego, California: Looking south over Mission Bay, the Pacific Ocean, downtown San Diego, and in the distance, the mountains of México. As I sit down to write, I peer to my left out the window looking south to the scene outside. I live on a steep hill in San Diego, California (the local name is Mount Soledad), so my view extends for miles, across the trees and vegetation outside my window, populated by bees, lizards, and hummingbirds, juncos and crows, Red-breasted Hawks, and other creatures I cannot yet name. Even the occasional rabbit. In the distance ..read more

Our lives are controlled by the measurement tools of science, by the needs of industry. Industry, in turn, is controlled by the economic theories of the world and by the need for currency to pay for materials, equipment, transportation, and, of course, labor. All of this is controlled by laws, regulations, and customs, all of which are artificial procedures devised by people. Those in charge often define these rules and procedures for their own benefit and impose them upon others, who must obey these artificial and often quite arbitrary dictates. Business schools and the financial community ha ..read more

Design for India Design is a powerful force that shapes culture and it is a professional activity that is beneficial for both community and business alike. This blog is for all those who are interested in exploring these wider manifestations of design as a critical human activity and would like to shape its application across all human cultural and economic activities. The header to M. P. Ranjan’s blog “Design for India.” The last entry is June 2015. Ranjan died in August 2015. http://design-for-india.blogspot.com/ Note for readers This article was presented as a ..read more