Don Norman Flashcards
What are the four principles of Human-centered design?
1) Focus on people and their context.
2) Solve the right problem by finding and addressing the root cause.
3) Think of everything as a system.
4) Work in an iterative manner where you try out small, simple interventions.
- People-centered: Focus on people and their context in order to create things that are appropriate for them.
- Understand and solve the right problems- the root problems: The underlying fundamental issues. The symptoms will just keep coming back if we don’t!
- Everything is a system: Think of everything as a system of interconnected parts.
- Small and simple interventions: Do iterative work and don’t rush to a solution. Try small, simple interventions and learn from them one by one, and slowly your results will get bigger and better. We must continually prototype, test, and refine our proposals to make sure that our small solutions truly meet the needs of the people we focus on.
Designers…
a. Possess a variety of deep expert knowledge in such topics as political science and engineering. These deep insights can help us solve the major global problems and meet the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals.
b. Possess a whole bunch of problem-solving techniques which are rooted in human-centered design. We know how to work with a multidisciplinary team and topic experts, and we’re experienced in working with the people we design for, people with all types of skills.
c. Often possess powerful positions in influential companies and organizations. That makes us a good match for helping to save the planet: e.g., by attaining the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals.
b. Possess a whole bunch of problem-solving techniques which are rooted in human-centered design. We know how to work with a multidisciplinary team and topic experts, and we’re experienced in working with the people we design for, people with all types of skills.
Designers are rarely topic experts, but we are good at working with multidisciplinary teams and facilitating problem-solving processes grounded in human-centered design. Furthermore, we’re experienced in working with the people we design for, people with all types of skills. However, designers struggle to gain significant authority and roles within influential companies and organizations. This is something we should not be afraid to aim for. If more designers get in a position to influence direction, we will obviously have the potential for greater impact.
When we aim to solve major global challenges, such as a cholera epidemic, it’s important for us to:
a. Work with a multidisciplinary team that must only include the best and most experienced experts.
b. Work with a skilled team that consists only of designers, because designers have a common, trusted way of thinking. This will essentially lead to faster and better solutions.
c. Work with a multidisciplinary team which must also include the people we are designing for, as the solution has to come from the people themselves.
c. Work with a multidisciplinary team which must also include the people we are designing for, as the solution has to come from the people themselves
Design is a fascinating discipline. Designers don’t have any “content” as such. Instead, we learn a whole bunch of problem-solving techniques, and these are powerful tools. One of our design tools is our ability to bring in various topic experts so they can be part of our multidisciplinary team. Our multidisciplinary teams must also include the people we’re designing for, as the solution has to come from the people themselves. Otherwise, it will not work, even if it’s the right solution that external experts or designers present. The people themselves have to be part of the solution. They understand the problems they face and have often already started to create the solution to the problem at hand. We can investigate that and assist or mentor them, and bring in additional resources. This is community-driven design, which is a subset of human-centered design — which is really about designing for humanity. That means that human-centered design is essentially a subset of humanity-centered design; we’re trying to save the planet. This is what we designers are really well trained to do.
What is community-driven design?
Involving the people themselves to be part of the solution.
They understand the problems they face and have often already started to create the solution to the problem at hand. We can investigate that and assist or mentor them, and bring in additional resources.
a subset of human-centered design.
What is human-centered design?
Designing for humanity
What unites all of us in the field of design?
people, society, and humanity.
Why does Don Norman argue that “user-centered design” (“UCD”) is not the best term to use today even though it’s a term he himself helped disseminate?
“User-centered design” and “user-centered system design” are terms which are too narrow and not entirely precise, because we don’t just study users and their use of (e.g.) computer systems. We essentially study real people and the context they’re living and working in, so “people-centered design” or “human-centered design” are more accurate terms to use today even though they are similar approaches which have simply been evolving over time.
According to Don, how do we actually do the thinking and creative work?
a. Use design thinking
b. User divergent thinking
c. Use many different methods, many different techniques and many different approaches.
c. Use many different methods, many different techniques and many different approaches.
In the design world we must have many different methods, many different techniques and many different approaches. These methods, techniques and approaches all come together to help create novel, important, robust and doable solutions.
What’s so special about designers in the context of 21st century design?
Designers are trained to work with and bring together various experts from various disciplines. Designers are used to focusing on the people (formerly termed “users”) and work within those people’s culture. We’re trained to find and address the right problem, the underlying problem. So, we can help the people identify the underlying causes of their own problems and we bring in the system approach as we know that a problem and a solution are part of a greater system. We can help people understand that everything is interconnected. Designers are trained to let the people drive the changes and the system. This is what we call “community-driven design.” Although most designers aren’t trained to apply their insights to these major global problems, we can learn.
What can designers offer?
Designers are trying to actually solve the real problem on the ground with the people who are being affected.
Essentially, Don Norman explains that designers possess human-centered design skills: First of all, it means that designers are trained to focus on people and the context they’re in in order to create things that are appropriate for these people. Secondly, designers are trained to identify the right problem, the root causes and the fundamental issues. The symptoms will keep coming back if we don’t solve the underlying issues, and designers can help the local people understand the root causes of their own problems. Thirdly, designers can help people understand that everything is a system, and everything is interconnected. Fourthly, designers are experienced in doing iterative work. For designers, it’s normal to try out small, simple interventions such as wireframes and paper prototypes in a more regular design context. We’re used to learning from these small steps, working our way to slowly getting bigger and bigger and better and better. However, most designers are not trained to apply their human-centered design insights to these major global problems, but we can learn.
What do expert solutions ignore?
People, Culture, Capabilities, Environment
We need to find people already living there, who’re already starting to address the problem, they understand the culture, they understand what is possible and what is not possible, and let them drive the system.
What’s the problem with experts according to Don Norman, who’s building some of his insights on William Easterly’s book The Tyranny of Experts?
The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators, and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor is a 2014 book by the development economist William Easterly. Don Norman builds on William Easterly’s points by explaining that experts generalize the problems and the solutions. They apply the same insights to the same problem: for example, that hunger might be primarily an economic issue. Therefore, they ignore the specific people, their culture, their capabilities and their environment. Secondly, experts generally try to solve the major problem all at once by setting up one major project which takes multiple years and sometimes multiple decades.
What are the biggest failures within large projects that aim to solve major global challenges?
Large projects may fail because they are so expensive as well as intrusive, overwhelming and disruptive to their environment that they often lead to new political problems. Even though a project may help the majority of people, there will always be people who’re harmed by the project. These people legitimately complain, and they raise the question asking if it would be more wise to spend the money on another project. Secondly, people lose their patience because grand projects taking decades lack the ability to show results and improvements during the process.
Design is a field of ________, not analysis. It’s a field of doing - doing something in the world.
synthesis
What is the problem in the way we solve complex socio-technical problems today according to Don Norman?
Today, we often see experts coming in telling the “poor,” “ignorant” people what’s the matter with their lives, systems and products. The experts don’t listen to the locals’ own understanding of their problems. The experts don’t try to understand the locals’ goals and the solutions they’ve started to build themselves. Instead, the experts construct and present their own expert solution to the local people. It’s arrogant. It’s patronizing. It’s wrong, and it doesn’t work.
What does Don Norman mean by democratizing design?
Foreign designers and experts work closely with local people. They include the local experts, and let the local people lead the way in understanding and solving complex issues. Designers and experts help the locals investigate what the root causes of their problems are and help them build on the solutions they’ve already started to build themselves. That way the local people can lead the process in improving their own lives.
What are the benefits of democratizing design according to Don Norman?
The local people often know what their problems are, they have started to create solutions and they know what their goals are. Experts and designers should work closely with the locals and assist them. That way, they have ownership, they know how to build the solution, and when things break, they know how to fix them. Furthermore, the locals can convince other local people to become involved in and support the process because they can say, “It’s not those outsiders who came in and told us what to do. We thought of it.”
What are wicked problems?
- Difficult to define the problem
- Difficult to even find a solution
- Difficult to know how to approach
- Difficult to know whether you’ve been successful
It’s a problem where it’s hard to define the problem, it’s hard to design a solution, it’s a complex socio-technical system and it’s difficult to know if you’ve been successful in the solution you’ve designed.
What is considered success in wicked problems?
If we’re continually making improvements and enhancements and making people’s lives better across all of the world, I consider that a success.
Why does Don Norman think we should use the term “complex socio-technical problems” instead of “wicked problems”?
Don thinks that we’ve used the term “wicked problems” too much and it has very different meanings.
According to Don, how can we democratize design?
By including the local experts and letting the local people lead the way in understanding and solving complex issues
In the customer onboarding workflow, can you guys find out what the list is for the event role and event type next week? We’ll need that info prior to working on that first step for the bride.
Worse than no solution at all.
According to Don Norman, a brilliant solution to the wrong problem can be worse than no solution at all. Engineers and businesspeople are trained to solve problems. Designers are trained to discover the real problems. It’s our role as designers to solve the correct problem.
When we design products and services, we use human-centered design insights to help us …
focus on the people
What’s a common danger for design students when they want to help solve some of the world’s most important problems?
They do not properly understand the people they’re designing for, because they don’t spend sufficient time with the local people and they themselves design and implement the solutions.
Who should ignite the process? Should it be the local people reaching out for help, aid organizations or designers looking to solve problems?
a. A combination of expert scientists, engineers, political scientists and designers
b. The local people
c. The aid organizations
b. The local people
A project is much more likely to succeed if you build on the local people’s motivation and drive. The local communities have often started to build solutions themselves — and when we as designers and experts tap into that drive and those insights, we can get much further than when we come in as strangers who observe the locals and then present our solutions to their problems. It’s all about community-driven design.
What’s the ideal way to focus on and work with people when you want to solve real problems?
a. Do a co-design where the community drives the project.
b. Work with experts and allow them to drive the project.
c. Do a co-op with a university that drives the project.
a. Do a co-design where the community drives the project.
Do a co-design where the community drives the project. When you do community-driven design, you’re much more likely to do things that will actually be accepted and be adopted by the local people and will make a difference in the world. It’s all about community-driven design. It’s only the locals who really understand their own environment and their own capabilities in depth. They understand what’s possible in their culture and environment. When they’re a part of and contribute to the research, ideation, prototyping, testing and production processes of the solution, then when it fails or breaks, they know how to improve or fix it. That way, we help people become self-sustained. We help co-create solutions, which can in fact work in the local community and they can be continuously improved by the locals.
What is a feedback loop?
A feedback loop is all about cause and effect. Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are returned as inputs. They form a loop of causes and effects. The system can then be said to feed back into itself. It’s tricky to understand feedback loops which occur in complex socio-technical systems such as climate change, hunger, clean water and education because we don’t see the effect of our actions until years and often decades later. We might solve these major problems by taking small, incremental steps because we can use the feedback from each of our small projects to set up other small and innovative projects.
Why is causal feedback important to humans?
Evolutionarily, we humans are wired for understanding that an action causes an immediate result. We use the effect as feedback to understand, modify and improve our future actions.
We’re not wired to understand complex systems where it takes several years or even decades for us to see the result of our actions.
Why is it especially tricky to take feedback loops into account when dealing with complex systems and problems such as hunger and education?
Complex systems have more than one feedback loop, and it may take decades to see positive or negative impacts of the initial action. The first system may influence a second system, which may in turn influence the first, leading to a circular relationship. This makes reasoning based upon cause and effect tricky, so it is necessary to analyze the system as a whole.
Complex systems have multiple, circular inputs and outputs. The first system may influence a second system, which may in turn influence the first, leading to a circular relationship. This makes reasoning based upon cause and effect tricky, so it is necessary to analyze the system as a whole. We cannot use simple causal reasoning as we’re used to evolutionarily. Furthermore, we operate on timescales which often involve decades before we can observe the effects. We will not get any feedback right away. On the other hand, if we dealt with a linear chain of cause and effect, it would be much easier for us to understand and deal with.
