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04/26/2001 "Don Norman gets sassy"

Guru: Engineers Won't Design Next-Gen Systems

Guru: Engineers Won't Design Next-Gen Systems
(05/07/99, 9:27 a.m. ET) By Peter Clarke, EE Times
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Engineers are the wrong people to define and design next-generation consumer-electronics equipment, keynoter Don Norman told an audience full of engineers at the Embedded Processor Forum here Tuesday.
"It's not you guys" who will build equipment and systems that are easy to use, said Norman, of the Nielsen Norman consultancy. "You're the wrong people." Instead, future systems will be designed "by psychologists and social scientists working in combination with engineers and technologists," he said he predicted.

Then they all stood up and slapped him.

He also said "It's important to know what your product is, focus on it, and don't listen to your customers -- but do it with care."

which does intellegently focus on the diference between design and use, listening and watching... too bad it sounds like "throw out usability"

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