Why good design is invisible, says design guru Don Norman

American Donald Norman has lived multiple lives as an educator, industry strategist, consultant, and speaker – all converging towards one thread: design. One who opines that "good design is harder to notice because it fits our needs and is invisible", Norman, 88, can be referred to as the conscience keeper of designers everywhere as they use his benchmark of functionality and common sense to compare their products. So much so, in design jargon, a "Norman door" is any door which is a puzzle to use – do you push, pull, slide, or just wait and open?

Numerous times on advisory boards, such as schools in India, such as the BITS Design School, Mumbai, Norman has traveled to the country and carefully studied people and society. Though his most-well-received book The Design of Everyday Things (DOET, 1988) is on good products, usable products, his new Designed for a Better World (2023) speaks on humanity-focused design. Don Norman Design Award organisation is an opportunity to invite early practitioners and institutions of learning to present socially-significant projects. In this conversation, he discusses the requirement of integrated learning in schools, how to measure the quality of life, and the issue with electric vehicles.

While I was recently in Bangalore, I ran into Sanjay Purohit, whose Centre for Exponential Change is doing small things, but in a manner that affects millions of people. I am going to collaborate with him on scaling the work because education really is the best way. India is dominating in education, not government schools as much, but private schools, which are providing their students liberal education. Students very often don't even know why they are learning, but you set them in a team and get them to do an exciting project. They need to understand finance, technology, art, and history, and interact with various people with various skills, and that, in my opinion, is the correct manner for education