Oral history interview with Don Norman

Abstract

This oral history, with one of Human Computer Interaction’s (HCI) and Cognitive Science’s foremost pioneers Don Norman, is part of a CBI project done for ACM SIGCHI. It briefly addresses Norman’s early life, before focusing on his graduate education and prolific career. This includes Norman’s discussion of his mentors and influences, career launch, leadership in Cognitive Science, and his intellectual and organizational contributions to HCI as field and ACM SIGCHI as an organization (the field and SIGCHI’s evolution). He recounts his leadership of UCSD’s Design Laboratory, his Chairing the UCSD Psychology Dept., educational philosophies, research management, and collaborations (with George Mandler, Danny Bobrow, and many others). He also touches upon his consulting, and his time working in industry (Apple, HP). Finally, the interview offers contexts on some of his principal publications, including his seminal book The Psychology of Everyday Things (POET), which along with his other scholarship developed and propelled forward a science of design.