Don Norman asking, "What do you do?"

How You as a Lone Designer Can Change the World

by Rikke Friis Dam • • 18 min read

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Has Don Norman convinced you to work on important societal issues? As a lone designer, what can you do? If you are a new designer who has just graduated from design school, an experienced designer, or a designer who would like to shift your company’s path toward helping the world, there are ways to make these things happen. In this video, Don shares his wisdom on how you can accomplish it by joining an organization or company that is already working on these issues, by gaining authority in your current company, or by joining a type of corporation—such as a “b-corp” in the US—that is actually set up legally to address some important societal issues. 

“If you want to work on the major societal issues, those are very difficult. There's no easy step to doing that. But it's one of the most important things that designers can do.”

— Don Norman: Father of User Experience design, author of the legendary book The Design of Everyday Things, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, and former VP of the Advanced Technology Group at Apple.

Don Norman is trying to mobilize the current and next generations of designers to use their insights in design as a way of thinking to solve the world’s major societal issues. And we as designers can solve these, and reap wonderful rewards for our planet and the people on it.

What big issue would you like to address in your design work? Watch this video to see more from Don Norman on how you can make it happen!

Transcript

References and Where to Learn More

Ready to shape the future, not just watch it happen? Join the Father of UX Design, Don Norman, in his two courses, Design for the 21st Century and Design for a Better World, and turn your care for people and the planet into design skills that elevate your impact, your confidence, and your career.

Hero image: © Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

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