American · b. 1935
Donald A. Norman is an American cognitive scientist, engineer and designer. He studied electrical engineering at MIT and earned a PhD in mathematical psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at the University of California, San Diego, where he helped found the Department of Cognitive Science, and later at Northwestern University. He served as vice president of Apple's Advanced Technology Group and led its User Experience Architect's Office. He co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group with Jakob Nielsen. He also served on the commission that analyzed the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, which shaped his interest in human error. His best-known book, The Design of Everyday Things, first published in 1988 as The Psychology of Everyday Things, argues that confusing products are the fault of designers, not users. It introduced ideas such as affordances and signifiers to a wide audience. He also wrote Emotional Design, The Invisible Computer and Living with Complexity. His work is a foundation of user experience design.