Don Norman speaks on The Future of Design at the New School of Architecture

Don Norman speaks on The Future of Design at the New School of Architecture

Don Norman speaks on The Future of Design at the New School of Architecture


A crowd gathers as Don Norman prepares to speak on the Future of Design at the New School of Architecture.

At the New School of Architecture in Downtown San Diego, Don Norman, Director of the UC  San Diego Design Lab, spoke to a large crowd about how the field of design is changing and becoming central to education and business. Counter to what most people think, Don emphasized that the field of design is not about making things look attractive. For Don and many others at the Design Lab at UC San Diego, design is a way of thinking.

“One of the important skills a good designer brings to the table is figuring out what the right problem is,” says Don. “Clients say what they want to achieve and the designer comes up with a solution, but they never really address the  problem. If you dig a little deeper for the fundamental issues, your research can lead to innovative solutions, sometimes completely eliminating the original problem.”

Traditional design emphasizes craft skills, but modern design emphasizes thinking skills. This produces two paths for designers: craft skills or thinking skills? Which path should designers take? Don often responds to this question with a famous quote from Yogi Berra. “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” he says. At UC San Diego’s Design Lab, Don’s team of researchers and students work to tackle the complex problems in education, healthcare and automation utilizing modern design-thinking skills. They believe design thinking or cognitive design… is the future of design.

ABOUT DON NORMAN:

Don Norman is Director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego where he is also professor emeritus of psychology, cognitive science, and electrical and computer engineering. He has been a VP of Apple, executive at HP, and Design Prof. at Northwestern and KAIST (Korea). He is co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group, an IDEO Fellow, honorary fellow of the Design Research Society, member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, trustee of IIT’s Institute of Design, and an honorary professor at Tongji University, Shanghai. He has honorary degrees from Delft, Padua, and San Marino, the lifetime achievement award in HCI from CHI, 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.


A crowd gathers as Don Norman prepares to speak on the Future of Design at the New School of Architecture.

At the New School of Architecture in Downtown San Diego, Don Norman, Director of the UC  San Diego Design Lab, spoke to a large crowd about how the field of design is changing and becoming central to education and business. Counter to what most people think, Don emphasized that the field of design is not about making things look attractive. For Don and many others at the Design Lab at UC San Diego, design is a way of thinking.

“One of the important skills a good designer brings to the table is figuring out what the right problem is,” says Don. “Clients say what they want to achieve and the designer comes up with a solution, but they never really address the  problem. If you dig a little deeper for the fundamental issues, your research can lead to innovative solutions, sometimes completely eliminating the original problem.”

Traditional design emphasizes craft skills, but modern design emphasizes thinking skills. This produces two paths for designers: craft skills or thinking skills? Which path should designers take? Don often responds to this question with a famous quote from Yogi Berra. “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” he says. At UC San Diego’s Design Lab, Don’s team of researchers and students work to tackle the complex problems in education, healthcare and automation utilizing modern design-thinking skills. They believe design thinking or cognitive design… is the future of design.

ABOUT DON NORMAN:

Don Norman is Director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego where he is also professor emeritus of psychology, cognitive science, and electrical and computer engineering. He has been a VP of Apple, executive at HP, and Design Prof. at Northwestern and KAIST (Korea). He is co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group, an IDEO Fellow, honorary fellow of the Design Research Society, member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, trustee of IIT’s Institute of Design, and an honorary professor at Tongji University, Shanghai. He has honorary degrees from Delft, Padua, and San Marino, the lifetime achievement award in HCI from CHI, 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.


A crowd gathers as Don Norman prepares to speak on the Future of Design at the New School of Architecture.

At the New School of Architecture in Downtown San Diego, Don Norman, Director of the UC  San Diego Design Lab, spoke to a large crowd about how the field of design is changing and becoming central to education and business. Counter to what most people think, Don emphasized that the field of design is not about making things look attractive. For Don and many others at the Design Lab at UC San Diego, design is a way of thinking.

“One of the important skills a good designer brings to the table is figuring out what the right problem is,” says Don. “Clients say what they want to achieve and the designer comes up with a solution, but they never really address the  problem. If you dig a little deeper for the fundamental issues, your research can lead to innovative solutions, sometimes completely eliminating the original problem.”

Traditional design emphasizes craft skills, but modern design emphasizes thinking skills. This produces two paths for designers: craft skills or thinking skills? Which path should designers take? Don often responds to this question with a famous quote from Yogi Berra. “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” he says. At UC San Diego’s Design Lab, Don’s team of researchers and students work to tackle the complex problems in education, healthcare and automation utilizing modern design-thinking skills. They believe design thinking or cognitive design… is the future of design.

ABOUT DON NORMAN:

Don Norman is Director of the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego where he is also professor emeritus of psychology, cognitive science, and electrical and computer engineering. He has been a VP of Apple, executive at HP, and Design Prof. at Northwestern and KAIST (Korea). He is co-founder of the Nielsen Norman group, an IDEO Fellow, honorary fellow of the Design Research Society, member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, trustee of IIT’s Institute of Design, and an honorary professor at Tongji University, Shanghai. He has honorary degrees from Delft, Padua, and San Marino, the lifetime achievement award in HCI from CHI, 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.

Read Next

Ailie Fraser UCSD Design Lab

Ailie Fraser Aims to Support People Doing Creative Tasks with Software

“There’s so much helpful content available now, but how can it be understood and consumed by a novice?” asks Ailie Fraser, a PhD graduate, “That’s what I’m interested in answering.” She is a part of a generation of upcoming design innovators, working collaboratively with The Design Lab. Her recently published dissertation aims to support people doing creative tasks with software specifically by leveraging resources generated by experts and bringing them into the context of people's workflows; in order to make them simpler to navigate and understand.

Fraser received her PhD from UCSD in Computer Science this past spring, and is now working full-time as a Research Engineer at Adobe Research. During her PhD, she completed three internships with Adobe Research. During her first internship, she focused on the domain of photo editing in Photoshop and addressed the problems novices experience when they begin to use the application. Due to the plethora of features and tools offered by the service, it can often be overwhelming to those unfamiliar with Photoshop.
Design Lab’s Edward Wang Wins NIH R21 For Work On Smartphone-based Alzheimer’s Screening

Design Lab’s Edward Wang wins NIH R21 for work on Smartphone-based Alzheimer’s Screening

Design Lab’s Edward Wang, who is a jointly appointed professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering in Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego, wins a National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 through the National Institute of Aging (NIA) for his work around transforming smartphones into pocket-sized personal health monitors. 

The NIA has selected Design Lab’s Edward Wang, who directs the Digital Health Lab, to receive NIH R21 funding for his work with Co-investigator Eric Granholm, Director of UCSD’s Center for Mental Health Technology (MHTech), to develop a smartphone app that can screen for early signs of cognitive decline indicative of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). An NIH R21, also known as the Exploratory/Development Grant, provides support in the early and conceptual stages of a project’s development. As part of a national push towards combating the debilitating effects of AD, the National Institute of Aging looked towards funding novel ways to screen for AD through the use of digital technologies. 
Smart Streetlights Data San Diego

San Diegans Shouldn’t Be Lab Rats for Innovation

Voice of San Diego Editorial by Design Lab Faculty Lilly Irani

In 2016, San Diego installed thousands of General Electric cameras, microphones and telecommunication devices on streetlights around the city. The City Council approved the project with little investigation, looking no further than the city’s casting of the project as environmental “sensors” and “nodes” that would analyze traffic and the atmosphere.

The city finally held town halls this year to explain the program to communities, but by then it was too late. Once installed, technologies of this type will outrun the uses for which they are designed and publicly justified. Over and over, researchers like myself have seen data creep — like mission creep — take hold as companies try to add value to data and monetize them.
Laura Spencer

Meet Laura Spencer, Designer-in-Residence at the Design Lab

As a leader for innovation and design in every avenue, The Design Lab prides itself on fostering talent with diverse backgrounds; and individuals who look to ask “how far can design’s impact reach?” Laura Spencer is one such talented individual, who currently occupies one of the Designer in Residence positions.  She is also currently a CUE (Computer Using Educators)  Board member, former President of SDCUE, the San Diego affiliate of CUE, and is a Founding Board Member of EquityEDU.

“As the Chief Academic Innovation Officer for Elite Academic Academy, a K-12 charter school in Southern California, I have to focus on bringing innovation into the curriculum,” explains Spencer, “I have to ask myself different questions. How can I implement design thinking into learning? How can I facilitate project based learning? How can I make education more meaningful?” with design thinking and project based learning. And again, just trying to find ways for education to be meaningful.” Spencer’s passion for education has founded her career since her introduction into the working world. In 2010, the educator graduated from Alliant International University- San Diego Scripps Ranch with an EdD in Educational Leadership and Administration. Since then, she has been heavily involved in roles, positions and curricula regarding education, leadership and innovation; such as her time as a Part-time Lecturer at University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education, and as a conference speaker across the country.
Don Norman

Design a Better World, with Don Norman

UX Cake kicks the season off with a fascinating conversation about changing the world with design, with Don Norman.

"There are really creative people in all these communities. And there aren’t enough experts to go around anyway. What we want to do is go around the world and find these people and facilitate, help them, empower them, give them expert knowledge and allow them to decide how to apply that to their problems." - Don Norman
Design Lab Uc San Diego Don Norman Creative Education

“I’m Not Distractible…I’m Curious and Creative.” – Don Norman Interviewed by Triton Magazine

Over 90% of industrial and automobile accidents are blamed on human error, with distraction listed…

Back To Top