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Don Norman Interview Design Usability

“I Think We Have to Start Over”: Usability Guru Don Norman on the Next Internet

“I Think We Have to Start Over”: Usability Guru Don Norman on the Next Internet

“I Think We Have to Start Over”: Usability Guru Don Norman on the Next Internet

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Design Lab Uc San Diego Don Norman Creative Education

“I’m Not Distractible…I’m Curious and Creative.” – Don Norman Interviewed by Triton Magazine

Over 90% of industrial and automobile accidents are blamed on human error, with distraction listed…

Brian LeDuc

Brian Leduc on Learning Agility & Career Changers | Design Chats


Brian LeDuc, Design Lab Designer-In-Residence, talks about his work on creating resources for career changers.

Design Chats is a video series where we sit down with design practitioners to answer questions about how they utilize human-centered design.

View our Design Chats playlist on the Design Lab YouTube Channel
Anti-racism Ucsd Design Lab

Studio Sessions – Power, Privilege, and Ethical Responses: Anti-Racism

In these times of critical conversations about civic and social justice, equity and inclusion, the Design Lab is sponsoring a series on Power, Privilege, and Ethical Responses (PPER). Our current focus is on anti-racism, specifically as it pertains to our black communities.

Part of this initiative is a series of Studio Sessions, designed to share tools that address the experiences of our black community, in hopes of bridging existing gaps between the historical precedent and current calls to action. These interactive sessions are meant to be a dialogue nurturing communication and self-reflection to build empathy and ethical responsibility amongst participants.

By utilizing Human Centered Design we can move from current structures of racism to a more inclusive system for all. Expert speakers address issues affecting our Black community ranging from the structures of Anti-blackness and White Fragility to Voter Suppression, Education, the School to Prison Pipeline, Environmental Racism, and much more. By bringing awareness to these issues in real-time, we can feel safe and move into reinforcing behaviors of oneness in real-time using the Design process and civic engagement elements of the training.
Overcrowded Verganti Design

Don Norman: Overcrowded, by Roberto Verganti: In favor of criticism

I was just in Germany, in Herzogenaurach to be precise, at Adidas headquarters. (Hardly anyone knows where Herzogenaurach is — it’s a 20 minute taxi from Nuremberg.) I was at a conference organized by my old friend (and co-author) Roberto Verganti, from the business school at Politecnico di Milano. Years ago, he and I had a debate in Milan about the value of Human-Centered Design (HCD) and the way it is normally practiced. To the audience’s great surprise, we both agreed:

1. HCD is a powerful tool for improving existing products. That is, it is a powerful tool for incremental innovation.
2. HCD, by its very nature (hill-climbing plus a kind of design by committee), is a really bad tool for radical innovation.
Grand Entrance Design And Innovation Building

UC San Diego breaks ground on first piece of its historic ‘grand entrance’ project

"Design should attack critical societal problems, such as disease, homelessness, a lack of food and access to education,” Innovation involves finding ways to implement change, to get things done." - Don Norman, Design Lab Director

UC San Diego on Thursday broke ground on the $67 million Design and Innovation Building, the first piece of the “grand entrance,” a sweeping project that’s meant to provide a clear, dynamic doorway for the county’s largest university.

The 74,000-square-foot building will provide everything from classrooms to studios to makers space for the school’s small but fast-growing design and innovation programs.
Olga McConnell

Olga McConnell, Project Specialist and Executive Assistant to the Director of The Design Lab

As the Executive Assistant to the Director of The Design Lab, a project manager for the Lab’s special projects and annual events, and a lifelong learner who holds a M.A. in English Linguistics and Translation, and a M.B.A. in Business Administration and Management, Olga McConnell’s zest for knowledge is palpable. She is currently on track to complete a Project Management Certification at UC San Diego Extension at the end of 2021, and she is planning on obtaining her Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification after that. “I’m kind of addicted to getting degrees,” jokes McConnell. “I even thought the other day, maybe I’ll go to law school. And then I was like, no, enough, enough.” 

For nearly five years, McConnell was Executive Assistant to Don Norman, the Founding Director Emeritus of The Design Lab. She is now the Executive Assistant to the new Director of The Design Lab, Mai Thi Nguyen. It is Nguyen’s vision of human-technology-community interactions, along with her JEDI (justice, diversity, equity and inclusion) approach that has McConnell excited about this new chapter in the Lab’s legacy, saying, “I see how great she is as an efficient leader, so I’m really looking forward to working with her, supporting her administratively, as well as taking charge of certain projects that she has in mind.”
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