The Role of Design

Don Norman explains the role of design and how designers can gain more respect.

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Chapters:
00:00 The role of Design
0:33 Why isn't design given more respect?
2:20 Design is not art
3:32 Designers must be generalists
5:03 View more NN/g content

[matthewsamuel]

Don Norman is the reason I pursued a career in design. Transitioning from roles such as graphic designer, 2D and 3D artist, and concept artist, I delved into UX design and grasped the depth required to excel in this field—embracing the necessary practices and skills. Despite performing at my peak in UI planning, I was recently laid off amidst ambiguity and confusion. Consequently, I shifted towards a generalist role. However, I'm uncertain about the scope of being a generalist in design—whether it encompasses roles like product owner, developer, and UX, among others. In my previous role, I operated across disciplines, employing lean principles to streamline processes and ensure clear implementation of requirements. Despite my efforts, being labeled as a luxury and disposable was disheartening. Moving forward, what actions can I take to emulate the kind of designer Don Norman inspires us to become, particularly in the realm of UX/UI within the tech industry?

[mohamedhasan]

wow don norman has such a great mindset and way of thinking.
those are just mind blowing thoughts.

[thejrkangle]

This! There are so many misunderstandings of how powerful DESIGN is. Many times the idea is to "get the visuals out and as good looking as possible". We have to remain curious about all aspects as you said. When I start to see designers only look at it as "we are the design team, let us do design work" and not "we are the design team, who are trying to marry the knowledge of many different domains" - I can point them to this video now!

[humanitycentereddesigner]

Designers must understand:
#History
#Politics
#Technology
#People
#Economics
#Business
.
..True #Humanily-centered Designers are #generalist

In today's rapidly changing world esp with #AI #GenAI, I wholeheartedly agree that there is a serious way to be a ‘#Generalist’ in order to be truly cross-disciplinary with depth & expertise. The manifesto about 'hybrid' professionals as future leaders resonates strongly, highlighting d importance of bridging disciplines for innovation and creativity. Here's to conducting the symphony of #Design and #Technology with depth, expertise, and a rich tapestry of influences. I hope to embody the role of a “Conductor in a concert of disciplines” by embracing complexity and navigating b/w different perspectives & fields.

[DemoShipper]

3:00 Design is not art. So true. And this makes it difficult in an organization as well as designers are being viewed as artists and often being pushed to do only UI or the 'look' of the products when we should have been involved from the very beginning of the process.

[icksv]

01:20 I agree, there's just one problem which is the fact that NNg did the same with Interaction Design and UX. Tog was helding a "from 0 to interaction designer in 3 days" how this match with rightfully statement that design thinking cannot be learned in a short course and neither UX Design?

How this fit with the old NNg usability week and the user experience week where people were attending 1-2 seminary days and were getting back in their offices thinking to have understood that it was all just there, that a profession like the Usability Engineer could be learned in 2 days?

Second thoughts are understandable and acceptable, I just wonder if Norman and Nielsen realized that when they expandd usability and user experience from the physical world to the digital one, the market was already occupied by graphic designers, web designers and UI designers and they all had understood the same thing, it's just a few days ago a girl on Medium writing "I took the Google course in UX Design on coursera" if it's enough for them it's enough for me.😑

[kusaytech]

Muy bueno. Gracias for share the information with alll

[sanrourae]

Gracias Don Norman, excelente comentario.

[neel]

Suggest some books to read for design. Some basic books or articles. (I have no relation to the design industry.)

[JulienReszka]

One thing is certain to me, it's that the value of design has been very inflated over the course of the last decade.