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References

Authors

Donald A. Norman

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Donald A. Norman

Has also published under the name of:
"Don Norman" and "D. A. Norman"

Personal Homepage:
http://www.jnd.org/
Current place of employment:
Nielsen NormanGroup

Career

Donald A. Norman has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from MIT and a Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a honorary degree from the University of Padua, Italy. He has been a professor of Computer Science (at Northwestern University), Psychology and Cognitive Science (at University of California, San Diego). He has also worked for Apple Computer at Apple's Advanced Technology Group and for Hewlett-Packard. He now collaborates with Jakob Nielsen and Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini in the Nielsen Norman Group

Recently Norman received the the 2006 recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science.

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Publications by Donald A. Norman (bibliography)

» 2008 «

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Norman, Donald A. (2008): Filling much-needed holes. In Interactions, 15 (1) pp. 70-71

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Norman, Donald A. (2008): A fetish for numbers. In Interactions, 15 (2) pp. 14-15

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Norman, Donald A. (2008): Waiting: a necessary part of life. In Interactions, 15 (3) pp. 36-37

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Norman, Donald A. (2008): Workarounds and hacks: the leading edge of innovation. In Interactions, 15 (4) pp. 47-48

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Norman, Donald A. (2008): Simplicity is not the answer. In Interactions, 15 (5) pp. 45-46

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Norman, Donald A. (2008): Signifiers, not affordances. In Interactions, 15 (6) pp. 18-19

» 2007 «

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Norman, Donald A. (2007): A Review of: "Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics" by Salvendy, G.. In International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 23 (1) pp. 189-190

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Norman, Donald A. (2007): Three challenges for design. In Interactions, 14 (1) pp. 46-47

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Norman, Donald A. (2007): Simplicity is highly overrated. In Interactions, 14 (2) pp. 40-41

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Norman, Donald A. (2007): The next UI breakthrough: command lines. In Interactions, 14 (3) pp. 44-45

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Norman, Donald A. (2007): The next UI breakthrough, part 2: physicality. In Interactions, 14 (4) pp. 46-47

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Norman, Donald A. (2007): There's an automobile in HCI's future: an update. In Interactions, 14 (6) pp. 50-51

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Norman, Donald A. (2007): Gavriel Salvendy (Ed.): Handbook of human factors and ergonomics (3rd edn.). In Universal Access in the Information Society, 5 (4) p. 421

» 2006 «

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Norman, Donald A. (2006): Interaction design is still an art form.: ergonomics is real engineering. In Interactions, 13 (1) pp. 45-60

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Norman, Donald A. (2006): Trapped in a Lufthansa airline seat. In Interactions, 13 (2) pp. 41-ff

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Norman, Donald A. (2006): Emotionally centered design. In Interactions, 13 (3) pp. 53-ff

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Norman, Donald A. (2006): Why doing user observations first is wrong. In Interactions, 13 (4) pp. 50-ff

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Norman, Donald A. (2006): Words matter. talk about people: not customers, not consumers, not users. In Interactions, 13 (5) pp. 49-63

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Norman, Donald A. (2006): Logic versus usage: the case for activity-centered design. In Interactions, 13 (6) pp. 45-ff

» 2005 «

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Norman, Donald A. (2005): Robots in the home: what might they do?. In Interactions, 12 (2) p. 65

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Norman, Donald A. (2005): Whose profession is this?: everybody's, nobody's. In Interactions, 12 (3) p. 51

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Norman, Donald A. (2005): Human-centered design considered harmful. In Interactions, 12 (4) pp. 14-19

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Norman, Donald A. (2005): Do companies fail because their technology is unusable?. In Interactions, 12 (4) p. 69

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Norman, Donald A. (2005): To school or not to school?. In Interactions, 12 (5) p. 51

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Norman, Donald A. (2005): There's an automobile in HCI's future. In Interactions, 12 (6) pp. 45-ff

» 2004 «

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Norman, Donald A. (2004): Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things. Basic Books
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Norman, Donald A. (2004): Emotional design : why we love (or hate) everyday things. Basic Books
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Norman, Donald A. (2004): Introduction to This Special Section on Beauty, Goodness, and Usability. In Human-Computer Interaction, 19 (4) pp. 311-318

» 2002 «

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Norman, Donald A. (2002): Emotion & design: attractive things work better. In Interactions, 9 (4) pp. 36-42

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Norman, Donald A. (2002): Complexity versus difficulty: where should the intelligence be?. In: Gil, Yolanda and Leake, David (eds.) International Conference on Intelligent User Interfaces 2002 January 13-16, 2002, San Francisco, California, USA. p. 4. Available online

“Complexity refers to the internal workings of the system, difficulty to the face provided to the user -- the factors that affect ease of use. The history of technology demonstrates that the way to make simpler, less difficult usage often requires more sophisticated, more intelligent, and more complex insides. Do we need intelligent interfaces? I don't think so: The intelligence should be inside, internal to the system. The interface is the visible part of the system, where people need stability, predictability and a coherent system image that they can understand and thereby learn.”

Copyrights may apply

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Norman, Donald A. (2002): Home Theater: Not Ready for Prime Time. In IEEE Computer, 35 (6) pp. 100-102

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Norman, Donald A. (2002): Beyond the computer industry. In Communications of the ACM, 45 (7) p. 120

» 2001 «

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Norman, Donald A. (2001): Cyborgs. In Communications of the ACM, 44 (3) pp. 36-37

» 1999 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1999): Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex and Information Appliances Are the Solution. London, MIT Press
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Used on the following page:

» Affordances: [/encyclopedia/affordances.html]

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Norman, Donald A. (1999): Affordances, Conventions, and Design. In Interactions, 6 (3) pp. 38-41

Used on the following page:

» Affordances: [/encyclopedia/affordances.html]

» 1998 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1998): The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex and Information Appliances Are the Solution. MIT Press
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» 1996 «

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Norman, Donald A. and Spohrer, James C. (1996): Learner-Centered Education (Introduction to the Special Section). In Communications of the ACM, 39 (4) pp. 24-27

» 1994 «

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Zhang, Jiajie and Norman, Donald A. (1994): Representations in Distributed Cognitive Tasks. In Cognitive Science, 18 pp. 87-122

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Norman, Donald A. (1994): Trends in the Computer Industry: Life-Long Subscriptions, Magical Cures, and Profits Along the Information Highway. In: Szekely, Pedro (ed.) Proceedings of the 7th annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology November 02 - 04, 1994, Marina del Rey, California, United States. p. 193. Available online

“It doesn't work the way you think it works. Technical, business, and social factors affect the way that new technologies are deployed. Once ideas are let out of the laboratory, common sense disappears, especially in the rush to show that one company's products are superior to another's almost equal, very similar ones. The easy part of interface design is the technology and the science. The hard parts are the social aspects: negotiating the multiple constraints on products, including cost, business models, the sales story, time to market, and those well known impediments to progress: the installed base and industry standards. The race is to the swift and the clever, not to the best. Customers purchase what they are told they want. Wants are not the same things as needs, customers are not the same people as users. Don't believe everything you read. In fact, don't believe anything. How much science and research actually impacts products? Less than you might think, less than you might hope, but often for good reasons.”

Copyrights may apply

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Zhang, Jiajie and Norman, Donald A. (1994): Representations in Distributed Cognitive Tasks. In Cognitive Science, 18 (1) pp. 87-122

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Norman, Donald A. (1994): How Might People Interact with Agents. In Communications of the ACM, 37 (7) pp. 68-71

» 1993 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1993): Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine. Reading, Massachusetts, Perseus
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Used on the following page:

» Augmentation of Human Intelligence: [/encyclopedia/augmentation_of_human_intelligence.html]

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Norman, Donald A. (1993): Cognition in the Head and in the World: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Situated Action. In Cognitive Science, 17 (1) pp. 1-6

» 1992 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1992): Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles. Reading, Massachusetts, Addison-Wesley Publishing
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Marcus, Aaron, Norman, Donald A., Rucker, Rudy, Sterling, Bruce and Vinge, Vernor (1992): Sci-Fi at CHI: Cyberpunk Novelists Predict Future User Interfaces. In: Bauersfeld, Penny, Bennett, John and Lynch, Gene (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 92 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conference June 3-7, 1992, Monterey, California. pp. 435-437. Available online

“This plenary panel will explore ideas about future user interfaces, their technology support, and their social context as proposed in the work of leading authors of science fiction characterized as the Cyberpunk movement. Respondents will react to and comment upon the authors' presentations.”

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Norman, Donald A. (1992): Where Human Factors Fails: Ergonomics versus the World of Design and Manufacture. In: Proceedings of the Human Factors Society 36th Annual Meeting 1992. .

» 1991 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1991): Cognitive artifacts. In: Carroll, John M. "Designing Interaction: Psychology at the Human-Computer Interface". Cambridge University Press pp. 17-38

Used on the following pages:

» Demand Characteristics: [/encyclopedia/demand_characteristics.html]

» Forcing Functions: [/encyclopedia/forcing_functions.html]

» Gulf of Evaluation and Gulf of Execution: [/encyclopedia/gulf_of_evaluation_and_gulf_of_execution.html]

» Distributed Cognition: [/encyclopedia/distributed_cognition.html]

» Augmentation of Human Intelligence: [/encyclopedia/augmentation_of_human_intelligence.html]

» Cognitive Artifacts: [/encyclopedia/cognitive_artifacts.html]

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Norman, Donald A. (1991): Collaborative Computing: Collaboration First, Computing Second. In Communications of the ACM, 34 (12) pp. 88-90

» 1990 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1990): The Design of Everyday Things. New York, Doubleday
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» 1988 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1988): The Design of Everyday Things. New York, Doubleday
View info on Amazon.com or .co.uk This link opens in a new window

Used on the following pages:

» Affordances: [/encyclopedia/affordances.html]

» Featuritis (or creeping featurism): [/encyclopedia/featuritis_and_creeping_featurism.html]

» Forcing Functions: [/encyclopedia/forcing_functions.html]

» Gulf of Evaluation and Gulf of Execution: [/encyclopedia/gulf_of_evaluation_and_gulf_of_execution.html]

» Human error (slips and mistakes): [/encyclopedia/human_error_slips_and_mistakes.html]

» Mental models: [/encyclopedia/mental_models.html]

» Interaction Design Patterns: [/encyclopedia/interaction_design_patterns.html]

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Norman, Donald A. (1988): The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York, Basic Books
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» 1986 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1986): Cognitive engineering. In: Norman, Donald A. and Draper, Steven "User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction". Lawrence Erlbaum Associates pp. 31--61

Used on the following page:

» Gulf of Evaluation and Gulf of Execution: [/encyclopedia/gulf_of_evaluation_and_gulf_of_execution.html]

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Hutchins, Edwin, Hollan, James D. and Norman, Donald A. (1986): Direct Manipulation Interfaces. In: Norman, Donald A. and Draper, Steven "User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction". Lawrence Erlbaum Associates pp. 87-124

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Lewis, Clayton H. and Norman, Donald A. (1986): Designing for Error. In: Norman, Donald A. and Draper, Steven "User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction". Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Used on the following pages:

» Forcing Functions: [/encyclopedia/forcing_functions.html]

» Human error (slips and mistakes): [/encyclopedia/human_error_slips_and_mistakes.html]

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Norman, Donald A. and Shallice, Tim (1986): Attention to action: Willed and automatic control of behaviour (Revised reprint of Norman and Shallice (1980)). In: Davidson, Richard J., Schwartz, Gary E. and Shapiro, David "Consciousness and Self-Regulation: Advances in Research and Theory". Plenum Press pp. 1-18

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Norman, Donald A. and Draper, Steven (eds.) (1986): User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction. Hillsdale, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
View info on Amazon.com or .co.uk This link opens in a new window

Used on the following pages:

» Gulf of Evaluation and Gulf of Execution: [/encyclopedia/gulf_of_evaluation_and_gulf_of_execution.html]

» Agile Usability Engineering: [/encyclopedia/agile_usability_engineering.html]

» 1985 «

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Hutchins, Edwin, Hollan, James D. and Norman, Donald A. (1985): Direct Manipulation Interfaces. In Human-Computer Interaction, 1 (4) pp. 311-338

“Direct manipulation has been lauded as a good form of interface design, and some interfaces that have this property have been well received by users. In this article we seek a cognitive account of both the advantages and disadvantages of direct manipulation interfaces. We identify two underlying phenomena that give rise to the feeling of directness. One deals with the information processing distance between the user's intentions and the facilities provided by the machine. Reduction of this distance makes the interface feel direct by reducing the effort required of the user to accomplish goals. The second phenomenon concerns the relation between the input and output vocabularies of the interface language. In particular, direct manipulation requires that the system provide representations of objects that behave as if they are the objects themselves. This provides the feeling of directness of manipulation.”

Copyrights may apply

» 1984 «

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Draper, Steven and Norman, Donald A. (1984): Software engineering for user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Software Engineering 1984, Silver Spring, MD. pp. 214-220.

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Norman, Donald A. (1984): Four Stages of User Activities. In: Shackel, Brian (ed.) INTERACT 84 - 1st IFIP International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction September 4-7, 1984, London, UK. pp. 507-511.

“When a person interacts with a computer it is possible to identify four distinct stages in that interaction: Intention, Selection, Execution, and Evaluation. Each stage has different goals, different methods, and different needs. It is well-known that the task and class of user affects the requirements for an interface. In this paper I emphasize that these requirements vary according to the stage of the interaction, even for an individual user working on a single task. The analysis of these four stages shows that different support is required at different times within an interactive session.”

Copyrights may apply

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Norman, Donald A. (1984): Stages and Levels in Human-Machine Interaction. In International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 21 (4) pp. 365-375

“The interaction between a person and a computer system involves four different stages of activities -- intention, selection, execution, and evaluation -- each of which may occur at different levels of specification. Analysis of these stages and levels provides a useful way of looking at the issues of human-computer interaction.”

Copyrights may apply

» 1983 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1983): Some Observations on Mental Models. In: Gentner, Dedre and Stevens, Albert L. "Mental Models". Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

Used on the following page:

» Mental models: [/encyclopedia/mental_models.html]

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Norman, Donald A. (1983): Design Rules Based on Analyses of Human Error. In Communications of the ACM, 26 (4) pp. 254-258

Used on the following page:

» Human error (slips and mistakes): [/encyclopedia/human_error_slips_and_mistakes.html]

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Norman, Donald A. (1983): Design Principles for Human-Computer Interfaces. In: Smith, Raoul N., Pew, Richard W. and Janda, Ann (eds.) Proceedings of the ACM CHI 83 Human Factors in Computing Systems Conferenc December 12-15, 1983, Boston, Massachusetts, United States. pp. 1-10.

“If the field of Human Factors in Computer Systems is to be a success it must develop design principles that are useful, principles that apply across a wide range of technologies. In the first part of this paper I discuss some the properties that useful principles should have. While I am at it, I warn of the dangers of the tar pits and the sirens of technology. We cannot avoid these dangers entirely, for were we to do so, we would fail to cope with the real problems and hazards of the field. The second part of the paper is intended to illustrate the first part through the example of tradeoff analysis. Any single design technique is apt to have its virtues along one dimension compensated by deficiencies along another. Tradeoff analysis provides a quantitative method of assessing tradeoff relations for two attributes x{sub:i} and x{sub:j} by first determining the User Satisfaction function for each, U(x), then showing how U(x{sub:i}) trades off against U(x{sub:j}). In general, the User Satisfaction for a system is given by the weighted sum of the User Satisfaction values for the attributes. The analysis is used to examine two different tradeoffs of information versus time and editor workspace versus menu size. Tradeoffs involving command languages versus menu-based systems, choices of names, and handheld computers versus workstations are examined briefly.”

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» 1982 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1982): Steps Toward a Cognitive Engineering: Design Rules Based on Analyses of Human Error. In: Nichols, Jean A. and Schneider, Michael L. (eds.) Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems March 15-17, 1982, Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States. pp. 378-382.

“This paper uses the analysis of human error to provide a tool for the development of principles of system design, both to minimize the occurrence of error and to minimize the effects. Eventually, it should be possible to establish a systematic set of guidelines, with explicit, quantitative cost-benefit tradeoffs that can lead toward a design discipline -- a "Cognitive Engineering." This short note starts the process.”

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» 1980 «

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Norman, Donald A. (1980): Twelve Issues for Cognitive Science. In Cognitive Science, 4 pp. 1-32

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Norman, Donald A. and Shallice, Tim (1980). Attention to action: Willed and automatic control of behaviour. Centre for Human Information Processing (Technical Report #99). Centre for Human Information Processing, University of California, San Diego, CA, USA

» 1977 «

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Lindsay, P. H. and Norman, Donald A. (1977): Human Information Processing: An Introduction to Psychology. New York, Academic Press
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Don Norman says: Dec 17th, 2008

What a strange list. My 3 most productive colleagues were Aaron Marcus, Steve Draper, and Clayton Lewis. Bizarre. all fine people, but I have never published anything with Aaron, only one article with Clayton, and one or maybe two with Steve. Both Steve and Clyton are well known for being brilliant, but for seldom publishing.

As for co-authors: the listed ones are not even close to my most frequent co-authors. My most frequent would be Nancy Waugh, Wayne Wicklegren, and Dave Rumelhart. Oh, I see: they are not in HCI.

Oh well, who am I to complain. FIne people, all of them.

Don Norman says: Dec 17th, 2008

You say: Mar 20th, 2010

Your text will appear here !

Changes to this page (author)

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Publication statistics

Publication period:1977-2008
Publication count:67
Number of co-authors:12

Productive colleagues

Donald A. Norman's 3 most productive colleagues in number of publications:

Aaron Marcus:85
Clayton H. Lewis:37
James D. Hollan:34

Collaboration count

Number of publications with 3 favourite co-authors:

Steven Draper:2
Jiajie Zhang:2
James D. Hollan:2

Other options

Learn more about Donald A. Norman:
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Conference Calendar

Mar 21

WritersUA Conf. for Software User Assistance

Mar 22

UX People

Mar 22

ETRA '10 - Eye Tracking Research & Applications Symp.

Mar 20

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