05 May 2014

Learn Design from Don Norman

Don Norman, author of the classic The Design of Everyday Things and my personal favorite,  Emotional Design: Why we Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (among many other books), has made his MOOC debut on Udacity.  You can now learn from a short and accessible intro to his ideas in the form of a free online course made up of videos,  reflection exercises, and design challenges...


It's designed for 2-week length collaborative engagement, but you can do it in your own time as well. It's a perfect fit for some light weekend learning.  Even if, like me, you've read his books and are fairly well-versed in design thinking methodologies generally, there's always something to learn from watching, reflecting and otherwise engaging with these core ideas.

Highlights include the fabulous "cube exercise" in which you're asked to redesign a cardboard box in a way that makes passers-by stop to touch, rotate, and rub it.  Also useful are the explanations of the gulfs of execution and evaluation, and the seven questions of design.

Check out Intro to the Design of Everyday Things.