Biography of Don Norman
Donald A. Norman calls himself a "user advocate." Business Week calls him a "cantankerous visionary" — cantankerous in his quest for excellence. Upside Magazine named him one of the "Elite 100" for 1999. Dr. Norman brings a unique mix of the social sciences and engineering to bear on everyday products. He is a strong advocate of human-centered design and simplicity and perhaps best known for his book, The Design of Everyday Things.

Dr. Norman is Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University and cofounder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an executive consulting firm that helps companies produce human-centered products and services. Norman serves as advisor and board member to numerous companies in high technology and consumer products and to non-profit organizations in the area of policy and education.

Norman has served as Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group at Apple Computer and as an executive at Hewlett Packard and UNext, a distance education company. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego where he was founding chair of the Department of Cognitive Science and chair of the Department of Psychology. He is a trustee of the Institute of Design in Chicago, IL.

Norman received a B.S. degree from MIT and an MS degree from the University of Pennsylvania, both in Electrical Engineering. His doctorate, from the University of Pennsylvania, is in Psychology. In 1995, he received an honorary degree from the University of Padua (Italy).

He has been a faculty member at Harvard University. Dr. Norman is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego where he was founding chair of the Department of Cognitive Science and chair of the Department of Psychology. He was one of the founders of the Cognitive Science Society and has been chair of the society and editor of its journal, Cognitive Science. He is a fellow of the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society, the American Psychological Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). In 2002 he received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from SIGCHI, the professional organization for Computer-Human Interaction. He has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford).

Prof. Norman has served on numerous advisory boards including The Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academy of Sciences; The Technology Advisory Committee for Merrill Lynch; The School of Computer Science, Georgia Institute of Technology; the Center for Lifelong Learning and Design, University of Colorado, Boulder, and the College Board. He is on the steering committee of The Learning Federation and is a trustee of the Institute of Design in Chicago.

Dr. Norman was the lead negotiator for Apple in the discussions between the computer and television industries in the development of an Advanced Digital TV system for the United States.

Dr. Norman has published extensively in journals and books, and is the author or co-author of thirteen books, with translations into twelve languages, including "The Design of Everyday Things," and "Things That Make Us Smart." His latest book is "The Invisible Computer: Why good products can fail, the PC is so complex, and information appliances are the answer." Business Week has called this "the bible of the 'post PC' thinking." He is currently working on a new book tentatively entitled “Emotion & Design.” His website is at http://www.jnd.org.

• Biographies for print publication (a Microsoft Word document)

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