Hasta La Ideas

The Irish Times interviews Don Norman over Skype using video and learns the direction of his thoughts on where he believes the next focus of design should be – ecosystems, “where eco means not only the product, but also the environment, the planet,”. Here’s a snippet from this sensitively written article:

“By now, we’re so aware of usability, I’m not interested in it,” Norman says now, proving how much things have changed since The Design of Everyday Things was published in 1988. “I take usability for granted now. That’s like saying ‘I should worry about whether the bridge will hold.’ You’re right, that’s very important, but we’ve moved beyond that, you don’t worry about the bridge holding now.”

As Norman sees it, technology has moved along a developmental trajectory that has seen its priorities evolve along with the demands of the user. “In the beginning, it was ‘Can you make the technology work?’,” he explains. “Then ‘Can you make it understandable?’ Then ‘Can you make it attractive and smoothly designed?’ Now it is focused more on the experience. And I’m arguing we should be focusing more on the total experience – the ecosystem.”

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