User Experience Design (UED) is the layman’s term for cognitive design engineering. Fundamentally, it means that the human and the invention is viewed as interconnected unit and not, like before, as separate entities. At the forefront of this revolutionary view stands MIT and U. Pennsylvania’s Prof. Donald Arthur Norman.
Norman writes the book on ergonomic design
From U. Pennsylvania to Harvard, Norman was on the up. He was one of the first converts to the concept of design that centers around the user, or cognitive ergonomics, as it is known. His book, “The Design of Everyday Things,” AKA “The Psychology of Everyday Things,” defined the concept.
Informally referred to as DOET or POET, this book is recognized as laying the foundation for the concept of ergonomic design and is still used, 34 years later. It received a major facelift in 2013 when “The Revised and Expanded Edition” was published. Few academic works in this fast-changing discipline have this longevity.
Keeping the user in mind in the design process
Author of more than 13 books and publications, Prof Norman has made a huge difference in this field. Ironic and even humorous then, that in self-effacing style and probably a little tongue-in-cheek, he calls his website JND for Just Noticeable Difference, as a nod to how little impact designers have in real life.