Donald Norman
Dec 23, 2024 peopledesignpsychologyusability
Donald Norman (1935–) is a cognitive scientist who bridged psychology and design. His book The Design of Everyday Things (1988) gave designers a vocabulary for why some objects are intuitive and others frustrating.
He adapted Gibson’s affordances for design, adding signifiers — the perceivable cues that communicate what actions are possible. A door handle is an affordance; its shape that suggests “pull here” is a signifier. When the two align, no instruction is needed. When they don’t, people push doors that need pulling.
Norman’s core insight: when people struggle with objects, blame the design, not the user. Good design makes the right action obvious.
Related: [[affordances]], [[james-gibson]], [[design]], [[legibility]]