Essays & Articles
Engineers and business executives are good at solving problems, but they seldom ask if it is the correct problem.
Human- and humanity-centered designers are trained to address the core, underlying factors, not just the symptoms.
Design must change from being unintentionally destructive to being intentionally constructive
From "Design for a Better World." last paragraph of Chapter 2 (page 13).
Failures? No — Learning Experiences
We scientists (and designers) learn from our failures. In fact, scientists seldom fail. Instead, they say “that didn’t work. Time to try something new.” I prefer never to talk of failure. Instead, I say “that...
Don Norman
Simplicity is in the mind, complexity is in the world.
If you understand something, then even things that are complex become simple. The complexity of the product must match the complexity of the task.
Don Norman in the book "Living with Complexity."
I learn more by being wrong than by being right
When people praise my ideas it is nice to hear, but I don’t learn anything. If people disagree, I learn. If they convince me, I am thankful and I change. If I believe I was...
Don Norman
If you can think of a clever solution in a few hours, assume many others have already done so
If you can think of a clever new concept or solution to an existing problem in a few minutes or hours, then you should recognize that many people all over the world, many who have...
Don Norman
Make it Simple? No! Make it Understandable.
Make it Simple? No! Make it Understandable. When people make things "simple" by minimizing controls, they make it much more difficult to work or to understand.
Simplicity is in the mind, Complexity is in the world. Why? Things you understand are simple.
It is the designer’s job to take complex requirements and make them so understandable and appropriate that they are pronounced “simple.”
Don Norman
The universe is made of stories, not atoms
A quote from the poet Muriel Rukeyzer’s book “The speed of darkness.” Why stories? Because they combine history and context, critical events and results, both good and bad, expected and unexpected all linked through causal...
Don Norman
You are being too logical, I often tell engineers and executives.
“You are being too logical,” I explain. “People are not logical. Logic is artificial. It was invented by mathematicians and philosophers. It is not how people think, which is why it is so difficult for...
Design for people the way they are, not for how you want them to be.
United Nations
ActionSustainable Development Goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals The UN’s SDGs The United Nations has multiple websites. I highly recommend spending time on this site (the URL is directly below the image of the 19 goals). There is a...
June 15, 2023
3 minutes read
WEIRD People: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic
ArtificialHow societies develop the way they organize and govern themselves differently in different parts of the world. Each way seems so natural to the inhabitants that they cannot understand that others might have developed completely...
June 5, 2023
3 minutes read
Behavioral Economics: Policy impact and future directions
ArtificialFrom the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2023). Behavioral economics: Policy impact and future directions. The National Academies Press. http://nap.nationalacademies.org/26874 An extremely important review of Behavioral...
April 26, 2023
3 minutes read
Creating a New Moral Economy
Human BehaviorHuman Behavior, Corporate profit, and Morality Daedalus is the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is published four times a year, with each issue devoted to deep examination of a single...
April 2, 2023
7 minutes read
Engineers and business executives are good at solving problems, but they seldom ask if it is the correct problem.
Human- and humanity-centered designers are trained to address the core, underlying factors, not just the symptoms.
Design must change from being unintentionally destructive to being intentionally constructive
From "Design for a Better World." last paragraph of Chapter 2 (page 13).
Failures? No — Learning Experiences
We scientists (and designers) learn from our failures. In fact, scientists seldom fail. Instead, they say “that didn’t work. Time to try something new.” I prefer never to talk of failure. Instead, I say “that...
Don Norman
Simplicity is in the mind, complexity is in the world.
If you understand something, then even things that are complex become simple. The complexity of the product must match the complexity of the task.
Don Norman in the book "Living with Complexity."
I learn more by being wrong than by being right
When people praise my ideas it is nice to hear, but I don’t learn anything. If people disagree, I learn. If they convince me, I am thankful and I change. If I believe I was...
Don Norman
If you can think of a clever solution in a few hours, assume many others have already done so
If you can think of a clever new concept or solution to an existing problem in a few minutes or hours, then you should recognize that many people all over the world, many who have...
Don Norman
Make it Simple? No! Make it Understandable.
Make it Simple? No! Make it Understandable. When people make things "simple" by minimizing controls, they make it much more difficult to work or to understand.
Simplicity is in the mind, Complexity is in the world. Why? Things you understand are simple.
It is the designer’s job to take complex requirements and make them so understandable and appropriate that they are pronounced “simple.”
Don Norman
The universe is made of stories, not atoms
A quote from the poet Muriel Rukeyzer’s book “The speed of darkness.” Why stories? Because they combine history and context, critical events and results, both good and bad, expected and unexpected all linked through causal...
Don Norman
You are being too logical, I often tell engineers and executives.
“You are being too logical,” I explain. “People are not logical. Logic is artificial. It was invented by mathematicians and philosophers. It is not how people think, which is why it is so difficult for...
Design for people the way they are, not for how you want them to be.
Human-Made Stuff and the Legal System
ArtificialHuman-Made Stuff Now Outweighs All Life on Earth From https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-made-stuff-now-outweighs-all-life-on-earth/ This December 9, 2020 article by Stephanie Pappas in the magazine Scientific American paints the sorry story of the impact of artificiality, in this case,...
April 1, 2023
2 minutes read
Measuring Quality of Life
Human BehaviorThe traditional economic measures focus upon numerical values almost entirely based upon worth measured in currency (usually U.S. dollar or the European Euro). But are there any widely accepted alternatives? This, of course, is a...
April 1, 2023
6 minutes read
Systems Theory
Human BehaviorThe Systemic Design Association For readers who want to learn more about how complex systems interact with human activities, the systemic Design Association (SDA) is an excellent source of information. Become a member. Go to...
March 31, 2023
3 minutes read
Public Garden/Compost
Human BehaviorOslo owns a biogas plant, transforming food waste into biogas, which is used as fuel by buses and garbage collection trucks in the city. Biofertilisers are also produced at the plant and used by farmers...
September 7, 2022
2 minutes read
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