Don Norman's jnd website

jnd stands for just noticeable difference: see What is jnd? 

jnd.org is the home for my essays, chapters from my books, book reviews, and other miscellany.

Schedule

To schedule me for talks, interviews, or consulting, see my Speakers Bureau under Press Kit (where you will also find biographical sketches and photographs).

My Physical Location and Talks. (Some consulting engagements and board meeting are not shown either because they are not public or because of confidentiality agreements.)

Recent Book Reviews

(the complete set is in "Recommended readings.")

Thinking Fast and Slow

This is an excellent summary of the latest thinking in the psychology of thought judgment, and decision making, written by one of the foremost scholars in the area. Highly recommended. The book covers a wide range of phenomena, producing very important, counter-intuitive insights to many aspects of everyday life. I have long used Kahneman's insights, work and examples in my own thinking and writing. This is a very valuable and easy-to-read review of his lifetime of research.

The origins of the modern world

Two books that treat history from a non-European point of view, emphasizing the critical role and world leadership, especially in trade, that Asia played until the 1800s. They should be of interest to everyone, but for designers, they help reinforce the notion that western biases have affected the way we think about the world and build products. Both books point out that the claims of European/American superiority in thinking (rational, logical thought) and governance (the rise of democracy) is a modern, western myth. Read at least one of them: it will change your view of world history and of the relative importance of east and west.

The Silicon Jungle: A Novel of Deception, Power, and Internet Intrigue

This novel portrays a possible, unfortunate future, where privacy is gone and large search companies and governments can track people's every deed, even if they don't do them. The author, Shumeet Baluja, works at Google, and the startup culture depicted in the opening chapter as well as the life in the (fictitious) search company Ubatoo, are well done and extremely realistic. I've seen it all myself. Read it: you will learn how modern search takes place and the various uses to which it is being deployed. Not a pretty picture, even though we all find the results useful. The real question is whether we want this much power in the hands of powerful companies and governments. Note that the companies have much more powerful computational resources than government agencies. We have learned not to trust the government: why should we trust private, profit-driven companies?

Recent Essays

(The complete set is in "Essays.") (Updated January 7, 2012)

Yet Another Technology Cusp: Confusion, Vendor Wars, and Opportunities

There is a technological revolution in the air, not because new principles and technologies have been discovered, but because so many past technologies have simultaneously reached a state of maturity that they can be incorporated into everyday technology. These cusps in technology produce new opportunities, but until the marketplace settles down, they also deliver considerable confusion and chaos. Each of the changes discussed here seems relatively minor and inconsequential, but taken as a whole, they pose considerable problems and potential risks.

Does Culture Matter for Product Design?

Does culture matter for product design? For the world of mass-produced products, that is, for the world of industrial design, culture might be far less important than we might have expected. Is this really true, and if so, is this a positive or negative finding?

Conversation: Jon Kolko & Don Norman mediated by Richard Anderson

Out with the Old, In with the New: A Conversation with Don Norman & Jon Kolko, mediated by Richard Anderson. The item contains photos, a transcript, and an embedded video of the event. Topics addressed included the nature of and the difference between art and design, whether design should be taught in art schools (such as AAU), Abraham Maslow, usability, what design (or all) education should be like, the problem with "design thinking" courses, the destiny of printed magazines and printed books, aging and ageism, the relationship between HCI and interaction design, Arduino, simplicity, social media, Google, privacy, design research, the context in which design occurs, the Austin Center for Design, solving wicked problems, whether designers make good entrepreneurs, politics, Herb Simon & cybernetics, the strengths & weaknesses of interconnected systems, and how designers should position themselves.

Design Education: Brilliance Without Substance

We are now in the 21st century, but design curricula seem stuck in the mid 20th century. In the 21st century, design has broadened to include interaction and experience, services and strategies. The technologies are more sophisticated, involving advanced materials, computation, communication, sensors, and actuators. The products and services have complex interactions that have to be self-explanatory, sometimes involving other people separated by time or distance. Traditional design activities have to be supplemented with an understanding of technology, business, and human psychology. With all these changes, one would expect major changes in design education. Nope. Design education is led by craftspeople who are proud of their skills and they see no reason to change. Design education is mired in the past.

Gesture Wars

At the start of almost every technology transition, chaos rules. Competing competitors create confusion, often quite deliberate, as they develop their own unique way of doing things incompatible with all others. Today, the long-established, well-learned model of scrolling is being changed by one vendor, but not by others. Gestures proliferate, with no standards, no easy way of being reminded of them, new easy way to learn. Change is important, for it is how we make progress. Some confusion is to be expected. But many of the changes and the resulting confusions of today seem arbitrary and capricious.

This Website

This website was selected for inclusion in the National Science Digital Library Report for Math, Engineering, and Technology. August, 2002

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Basic site design done jointly with Dayna Bateman, daynab at oblioarts.com*. The site was recoded for Movable Type by Matthew Goddard (

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