Don Norman

Keynote Date: Thursday, 7th, 11:00 - 11:30 am

Title: The Research-Practice Gap

Abstract: Research communities often have surprisingly little understanding, knowledge of, or even interest in the product side of companies. This is true even of research groups within industry, for their interests are often more closely aligned with their colleagues in academia than with the product groups within their own companies. Why? Because the skills, reward structures, and interests of the two communities are so different that the gap is inevitable. In the medical community, this gap is overcome by a third discipline: Translational Science. I recommend we follow suite with a new discipline, Translational Engineering, that translates the language of research into the language of products, and vice-versa.

Bio: Don Norman was recently named by Business Week as "one of the world's most influential designers." His studies and books on design theory coupled with his extensive academic and industry experience help companies produce enjoyable and effective products and services. Norman brings a systems approach to design, arguing that great design must touch every aspect of a company. He is well known for his books, including “The Design of Everyday Things” and “Emotional Design” “The well-rounded product,” says Norman, “will enhance the heart as well as the mind, being a joy to behold as well as to use.” He is the co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, an IDEO fellow, a Trustee of IIT’s Institute of Design in Chicago, professor emeritus at Northwestern University and the University of California, San Diego. He has been a Vice President of Apple and an executive at Hewlett Packard. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His book. “Living with Complexity,” argues that the quest for simplicity is misguided because complexity is both good and necessary: our lives are complex, and our tools must match the tasks we do. What we need are things we can understand and master, for once mastered, even complex-looking things are simple. He lives at www.jnd.org.