At 89, Don Norman, a luminary in design and user experience, remains refreshingly direct, cutting through pleasantries to get straight to the point. He’s a figure who has profoundly shaped how we understand and interact with everyday objects, long before ‘user experience’ became a buzzword. From the doors we open to the phones we use, Norman’s influence is pervasive, touching everything from e-commerce checkout buttons to how governments engage with citizens.
Currently an advisor at the new BITS Design School in Mumbai, Norman is renowned for his disruptive approach to design. He is widely credited as the progenitor of user-centered design. His discomfort isn’t with complexity, but with design that is merely pretty yet impractical. He champions principles of function, empathy, and moral clarity.
Norman famously coined the term ‘Norman Door’ to describe doors that are confusing to use – those that might say ‘PULL’ but require a ‘PUSH’. He recounts an experience where a bathroom door was so seamlessly integrated into a wooden wall that it took him ten minutes to find it, quipping, “It’s not design, it’s sculpture.” This irritation with thoughtless beauty fuels his lifelong discipline, encapsulated in his seminal book, The Design of Everyday Things. His core philosophy posits that when objects confuse users, the fault lies with the design, not the user. Each confusing interface, he argues, is an act of disrespect, while an elegant one is a moral choice.
With a background in cognitive science, Norman’s transition to design stemmed not from a love of creativity, but from the frustration caused by confusion. He recognized early on that poor design is an ethical issue, stating, “When you blame people for mistakes that design has caused, you’re punishing them for being human.” He has also revised his earlier notion that good design should be ‘invisible,’ now believing that invisibility can lead to opacity, as seen in algorithms and AI that we don’t understand.
Norman’s critiques extend to modern technology, even impacting virtual interactions. He pointed out the flaw in video conferencing: to simulate eye contact, one must stare at the camera, preventing actual visual connection with the person on screen. “That,” he declares, “is bad design.” When technology hinders human connection, it’s fundamentally broken, not clever.
Norman’s impatience with flawed design isn’t new; it led him to become Apple’s first User Experience Architect, a title he created. While Apple was once a beacon of human-centered technology, Norman observes a shift: “What used to be the easiest machine in the world is now one of the hardest.” Aesthetics have, in his view, overshadowed clarity.
His career is marked by a pattern of building institutions, challenging their core assumptions, and departing when his insights are ignored. This restlessness fuels his impact, allowing his ideas to spread widely. His teaching methodology, even at BITS, involves immersing students in local communities for weeks before they design anything, fostering a deep sense of empathy and changing their worldview.
Despite his reputation for bluntness, Norman is remarkably self-aware and has become gentler with age. He now runs the Don Norman Design Award, personally mentoring young designers. He believes failure is the greatest teacher and that true progress lies in knowing when to step back, particularly in an era of addictive engagement design.
His current major concern is ‘seduction’ in design, where techniques like ‘almost succeeding’ are used to keep users hooked, turning empathy into manipulation. He criticizes platforms that endlessly capture attention and time, arguing, “We don’t need friendlier traps. We need exits.” He urges designers to recognize that addiction-by-design is not innovation and that if a product or system prevents you from walking away, you are serving it, not the other way around.
From fixing confusing physical doors to warning about invisible digital ones that trap us, Don Norman’s enduring lesson is clear: every design is a moral act.