Meeting Don Norman

I have not been blogging regularly still I have been so busy. I am hoping that I can get back into blogging and twittering soon. Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to meet with Don Norman who is retiring from Northwestern University next year. Don focuses on technology and user interaction and is a major guru in the design industry.

As an engineer by background, it has take a few years for me to look at developing applications from the user perspective and not from the view of an engineer or programmer. The focus on user interaction and design is so critical that it can make the difference between winning or losing a project. Case in point, we recently won a project by focusing solely on their business and the needs of the users and how they need to interaction with the application. Lotus should be happy to know that this was another win for Lotus technology, Domino.

As a technologist it is hard but necessary for us to realize that technology is secondary. I see too many times companies emphasising the cool things that the technology can do but that is irrevalent. During the meeting, it was interesting to watch one of the principals from one of the companies who is an engineer to understand the importance of user interaction and perspection. After two hours he still did not get it.

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