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Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman

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How This Course Will Help Your Career

What You’ll Learn

  • How designers can improve the world and solve global problems

  • Why designers are so special and how we can democratize design

  • How to apply human-centered design principles to solve global problems

  • How to use systems thinking to investigate the entire system

  • How to tackle major problems by muddling through

  • How today's methods for designing and measuring success are wrong

  • How to move up in a company and address bigger design challenges

  • How to communicate clearly and gain interest

  • The critical skills for 21st century designers

In this course, taught by your instructor, Don Norman, you’ll learn how designers can improve the world, how you can apply human-centered design to solve complex global challenges, and what 21st century skills you’ll need to make a difference in the world. Each lesson will build upon another to expand your knowledge of human-centered design and provide you with practical skills to make a difference in the world.

“The challenge is to use the principles of human-centered design to produce positive results, products that enhance lives and add to our pleasure and enjoyment. The goal is to produce a great product, one that is successful, and that customers love. It can be done.”

— Don Norman

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In the first lesson, you’ll learn how designers can improve the world. You’ll also learn how designers can use the principles of human-centered design to solve complex global challenges. We’ll also explore why we evolved from user-centered design to people-centered design on our journey with instructor Don Norman. Don is the co-founder and Principal Emeritus of Nielsen Norman Group. He will explain why designers are so special and how to democratize design.

In the second lesson, you’ll learn how to apply human-centered design insights to the 21st century’s challenges. You’ll also learn how to focus on people when you solve complex global challenges. We’ll also learn how to solve real problems and not just symptoms from your instructor, Don Norman. Don will teach you how you can muddle through by starting out solving just a little part of the root problem.

In the final lesson, you’ll learn about the new skills that designers must develop and how to navigate the journey to mastering those skills. You’ll also learn how to increase your influence as a designer. We’ll also learn how today's methods for designing and measuring success are wrong. Don will teach you how to communicate clearly to gain people’s interest.

Throughout the course, we’ll supply you with templates and step-by-step guides so you can go right out and use what you learn in your everyday practice.

In the “Build Your Portfolio Project: Make A Difference,” you’ll be able to apply the principles of human-centered design to make your local community a better place. If you want to complete these optional exercises, you will get hands-on experience with the methods you learn and in the process you’ll create a case study for your portfolio which you can show your future employer or freelance customers.

You can also learn with your fellow course-takers and use the discussion forums to get feedback and inspire other people who are learning alongside you. You and your fellow course-takers have a huge knowledge and experience base between you, so we think you should take advantage of it whenever possible.

Course Overview: What You'll Master

  • Each week, one lesson becomes available.
  • There's no time limit to finish a course. Lessons have no deadlines.
  • Estimated learning time: 12 hours 35 mins spread over 6 weeks .

Lesson 0: Welcome and Introduction

Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour 24 mins.

Lesson 1: How Designers Can Improve the World

Available once you start the course. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 56 mins.

Lesson 2: How You Can Apply Human-Centered Design Insights and Processes When You Aim to Solve Complex Global Problems

Available anytime after Apr 30, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours 51 mins.

Lesson 3: What Are the Design Skills You Will Need to Make a Difference in the 21st Century?

Available anytime after May 07, 2025. Estimated time to complete: 5 hours 24 mins.

Lesson 4: Course Certificate, Final Networking, and Course Wrap-up

Available anytime after May 14, 2025.

How Others Have Benefited

Nicholas J Schroeder

Nicholas J Schroeder, United States

“It was a marvelous course that challenged me to think about my career and how to define myself in a rapidly changing and complex socio-technical environment.”

Susan Winer

Susan Winer, United States

“Mr. Norman draws on great breadth and depth of knowledge and experience, and although he's describing Big Ideas, he breaks them down in a straightforward, common-sense approach. The material is organized progressively, each lesson building on the previous. His video presentation feels very human and accessible as if we were conversing over dinner.”

Milena Valcheva

Milena Valcheva, Bulgaria

“Don Norman speaks extremely convincingly and with emotion, with which he manages to captivate the listener. This course changed my way of thinking, not just from a design perspective, but completely.”

See other reviews

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Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman
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Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman

1.2 - 21st Century Design: Let’s Use Human-Centered Design to Solve Major Global Challenges

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  1. 00:00:00 --> 00:00:32

    I want to talk about 21st Century Design. So, what do I mean by that? I mean it's a different kind of design. It's not the traditional design where we make beautiful,  wonderful objects and wonderful experiences. It's about thinking about design as *a way of thinking*, a way of addressing the major problems of the world, because designers have a special way of addressing issues.

  2. 00:00:32 --> 00:01:02

    We call it Design Thinking – it comes under many other different names – but it's what designers have been doing for... well, since the beginning of designers! And in other words, it's not new. It's been around for 80... 100 years. So, what is design as a way of thinking? Well, here's how *I* like to talk about it. And I call this *human-centered design*, and we'll come back to describe that term later.

  3. 00:01:02 --> 00:01:30

    But it has four important components. First of all, well, it's *human-centered*. So, we always focus upon the people. And that's very important because it's the only discipline where the major focus is about making things that are appropriate for people. Second, we solve the right problem. You know, there are lots of really good problem-solvers in the world: The economists, the political scientists and especially the engineers

  4. 00:01:30 --> 00:02:00

    – they're trained to solve problems. But engineers, they never stop and say, "Is this the right problem?" They give you a *solution*. But, you know, I have a rule when I do my consulting work, which is: Do not solve the problem that I am asked to solve. That's because usually we discuss a problem by the *symptoms*. And if you solve the symptoms, well, that's all very good... but the problem *comes back*. What you have to do is figure out: "What's the real cause?"

  5. 00:02:00 --> 00:02:33

    So, we have epidemics, especially in cities – not the current epidemic – but just, say, cholera epidemics. And we say, "Well, we should go in and treat them and cure the people!" Yes... but *why* did you have epidemics? Well, it's usually carried by poor sanitation. All right, so let's improve the sanitation. *Why* is there poor sanitation? Well, because the people aren't using appropriate toilets.

  6. 00:02:33 --> 00:03:02

    Well, OK, but why not? Well, because they're homeless. If you want to stop cholera epidemics, you have to solve the homeless problem; the point being: You have to look at what the *fundamental issues* are and address them. And those fundamental issues are much more *difficult* than solving the symptoms. But unless you address them, the symptoms keep coming back and back and back. Well, what can designers do to solve the homeless problem?

  7. 00:03:02 --> 00:03:32

    Well, let's go back. What do we do? We focus on the people. We focus on answering the right problem – the deep underlying causes. Third, we recognize that everything is a *system*. You can't solve one little piece, because everything is *interconnected*. So, you have to really look at the nature of the system. And, finally – and this is *extremely* important – we *don't rush* to a solution.

  8. 00:03:32 --> 00:04:02

    We know that when we're dealing with human beings and societies and different cultures and political forces and economic factors that whatever we do is probably *not* going to be right. So, what we do is we try a *simple, small intervention*. We see what the *results* are. Then we modify it, and we continually experiment, do an intervention, learn from it, change what we're doing,

  9. 00:04:02 --> 00:04:30

    and slowly we'll get bigger and bigger because each one allows us to do even more the next time; and we'll get better and better. So, that's the secret, but it's a *hard secret* because for a problem like the cholera epidemics I mentioned it could take 10 years to solve. But these are big, major problems – they will not be solved overnight. And that's what designers, though, are really well trained to do.

  10. 00:04:30 --> 00:05:02

    Design is an interesting discipline. Designers don't really have any content. The content that designers have and what they learn when they go to a design school and get design degrees they learn the techniques; they learn the problem-solving and problem-defining methods. They have a whole bunch of powerful tools. And then, because we don't know the details of healthcare or even housing, we have to *bring in the experts*.

  11. 00:05:02 --> 00:05:33

    So, we have to have a multidisciplinary team where we work together with people from all types of skills. And we have to learn how to work with them and bring together a solution that is most appropriate for the people. And the most important thing – which I'll come back to in a short time – this has to come *from the people*. If designers come in and look over a problem and say, "Ah! I  understand the problem; here's what you should do...", it doesn't even matter if that's the correct answer. It will *not* work,

  12. 00:05:33 --> 00:06:02

    because unless the people who are being affected understand and believe and accept it, it will not work. So, the people themselves have to be part of the solution. And you know what? Quite often, they've already started. We have seven billion people in the world, and a lot of them are really creative and wonderful. And those people understand the problems they're facing. And a number of those seven billion have already started creative, wonderful solutions.

  13. 00:06:02 --> 00:06:33

    So, instead of trying to come in and say, "Here's what we say, us experts, foreigners (who don't understand your culture and don't understand your resources and don't understand what you're able to do and what you need)," why not let the *people* lead the way? We see what they're doing; we say, "That's really clever! Ah! I wonder... if you need assistance, we can mentor, we can facilitate, we can bring in other resources. You have difficulty – *individuals* have difficulty tackling the whole system

  14. 00:06:33 --> 00:06:59

    or tackling the political issues, but that's where we can come in and help." So, we call that *community-driven design*, which is a subset of human-centered design; which, as far as I am concerned, is really about *designing for humanity*. So, human-centered design is a subset of *humanity-driven design*, *humanity-centered design* – because we're trying to save – well, the planet.

Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman

1.4 - What’s So Special about Designers?

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  1. 00:00:00 --> 00:00:32

    So, let's call this episode: "But why Designers? What's so special about Designers?" And the reason I use that title is because when I look at some of the major problems in the world that we are trying to address, and I take those problems from the United Nations, which has a list of 17 Sustainable Development problems, that are extremely critical

  2. 00:00:32 --> 00:01:00

    – actually, it's a list of 16 problems because the 17th is gathering together all the different kinds of talents needed to solve those other 16. Those are not new problems; they're well known: problems like hunger, education, universal healthcare, housing, santitation – there's all sorts of issues there that many, many very talented people

  3. 00:01:00 --> 00:01:33

    have been trying to solve for a long time; many governments, the United Nations itself, many foundations. So, what can designers offer? Here's what we can offer. Almost all of these systems have *failed*. They've spent billions of dollars, taking decades of time. And most of the time, they fail; and even when they do succeed, they only succeed for a small part of the problem, and usually taking many, many more years than they had expected

  4. 00:01:33 --> 00:02:01

    and costing two or three or four times as much money as they expected. And I'm talking about money measured in billions of dollars. So, what's the problem? The problem I think is – well, there's a book by a man named Easterly called "The Tyranny of Experts". Let me describe what I mean – or what he meant – by that. It's that when you have a major problem, what do you do? You call in the experts.

  5. 00:02:01 --> 00:02:32

    And the experts look at the problem. They may spend a few years studying it: "Oh, we see why you don't have pure water in this area. And here is a solution." And they recommend a solution. And the experts are good. They are truly expert at these issues, and their solution is a sensible one. And, as a result, foundations come in, the governments come in, the United Nations comes in, and puts in lots of money. And they start a multiple-year, a multiple-decade program. And it *doesn't* work.

  6. 00:02:32 --> 00:03:01

    Why not? Well, because the problem with experts – and this was the fundamental point of the book by Easterly – is experts have a wide range of knowledge, and the reason they can take that knowledge and apply it to all sorts of problems is they *generalize* it; they can bring it to an abstract level, so you can see how: "Oh, yes, this problem in Africa is very similar to the problem we face in India, which is very similar to the problem in – I don't know – South America.

  7. 00:03:01 --> 00:03:31

    They're right. What this ignores is the *people*. It ignores the *cultures*; it ignores the *capabilities*. For that matter, it even ignores the *environment*, which is very, very different in all of these places. And so, a solution that in principle is to be correct has to be done differently in these different communities with different cultures and different environments and different capabilities. So, that's one problem.

  8. 00:03:31 --> 00:04:00

    And the second problem is the approach of trying to solve it all at once. These very large projects fail. And here's one reason they fail: They are so big and so expensive and involve so much disruption that it leads to a big political problem because any project that big and that expensive is going to have opposition because, first of all, even if you may help huge numbers of people,

  9. 00:04:00 --> 00:04:32

    there are some people who might be harmed. You might have to move their homes; you might have to change the way they live. There are things that are going to happen that can't possibly help everybody. So, the ones who are displaced or inconvenienced or even harmed: They legitimately complain. Second, when you have so much money, well, people might say, "That's a lot of money! I mean, don't we have *other* needs that we should be spending on? Why are we spending it here?" So, it becomes a big political issue; and then, on top of that,

  10. 00:04:32 --> 00:05:01

    because it can take a decade: everybody's behind you and it gets going, and the first couple of years are going well, and then people say: "Nothing's happened. We spent all this money! Why is nothing happening? Nothing is changing." And it doesn't matter how many times you have explained that it's going to take a decade before you see things, oh, no – people lose their patience. So, these are all the different kinds of problems, in addition to the one – these are abstract problems with abstract solutions.

  11. 00:05:01 --> 00:05:33

    They don't often take into account the real lives and the real people who are living in the communities. But here's an interesting result – a side result. One thing that's come out of all of this work, of all the failed projects around the world for so many decades is a new industry, and it's called: Writing books to explain why we have these problems, and there's a book on this and a book on that and a book on this, and there must be 50 books and reports that detail

  12. 00:05:33 --> 00:06:01

    – and, actually, there's a lot to be learned by reading these books. But reading the books about why we failed, that's good to learn from... but we also need some books about why we succeeded. But we can't write those books until we actually have done so. And that's where the work begins. So, what designers can do is designers, first of all, are used to working with all the different experts in many different fields.

  13. 00:06:01 --> 00:06:30

    They're used to bringing them together to try to figure out what is needed from each discipline and put it together into a solution, because design is *not* a field of analysis. Design is a field of *synthesis*. That is to say, we're a field of *doing*: actually doing something in the world. So, that's not your normal university discipline. Most university disciplines are all about studying the problem and having all sorts of wonderful theoretical results which gets published in all the scientific journals.

  14. 00:06:30 --> 00:07:00

    No. What we're trying to do is actually solve the real problem on the ground with the people who are being affected. So, we bring that approach – a focus on the people – and we work within the cultures. In fact, the best way of doing that is that we don't do it. We find the people already living there, who're already starting to address the problem. They understand their culture. They understand what is possible and what is not possible.

  15. 00:07:00 --> 00:07:31

    And let *them* drive the system – what we're calling *community-driven design*. But what we are able to do – most of the community-driven design approaches are actually solving the *symptoms* – and what we're able to do is help them get to the underlying causes, and also to bring in the *system approach* because individuals in small groups, they aren't capable of doing the very large work to think of this as an *entire system* where everything has to come together – many, many different disciplines.

  16. 00:07:31 --> 00:08:00

    And, for that matter, the *economics* of the country are very important in solving the problem, and the *politics* of the country, and even world trade – the politics of world trade. These are all important. But designers have that skill by finding the right problem, bringing together the systems and always a focus upon the people or, if you like, upon *humanity*. So, that's the power that designers have... *if*

  17. 00:08:00 --> 00:08:22

    — here's the "if": Are you a designer? If you are, are you capable of working on a problem like that? Most designers are *not*. They can learn, but they weren't trained to do problems of this sort. And that gives rise to another topic for another video.

Design for the 21st Century with Don Norman

3.3 - Don Norman: The Way We Design Today is Wrong!

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  1. 00:00:00 --> 00:00:32

    I've been thinking about writing a book. Not a surprise, because I've written some 20 books, so it's pretty likely that I will write another one. And I was thinking that  the very first line of my book might be: In 1971, Victor Papanek, a famous designer at the time, wrote a book called "Design for the Real World".

  2. 00:00:32 --> 00:01:01

    And the very first sentence of *his* book was basically there is no profession  more evil than that of design. Interesting start. But then he went on to say, well, actually  maybe there's another profession   even more evil than design, and that's *advertising*. Why? Because advertisers convince people to buy the junk that designers are producing.

  3. 00:01:01 --> 00:01:31

    Now, that's very interesting. Now, what did he mean by that? Well, look – I can give you a simple example. Take a cell phone – your mobile. In the United States and in Europe, these can cost about a thousand dollars, which is roughly a thousand euros as well. These are expensive. And in order to make it, we've had to mine all sorts of exotic materials from countries around the world,

  4. 00:01:31 --> 00:02:00

    destroying the environment in those countries. And when we produce it and manufacture it, we manufacture it in huge plants. There's a major company in China that manufactures almost all of the stuff that companies like Apple produce or design. They have a million employees. And so, what do they do to the environment there with such huge numbers of people? And then, how long does this phone last?

  5. 00:02:00 --> 00:02:33

    They're really designed to be two or three years, and then you discard it and buy a new one. And, oh, can you reclaim some  of the expensive materials inside the phone? No, they're not designed for that. It's very difficult to take it apart and to salvage the components. So, they're often just thrown into big heaps. I was in India, the city of Ahmedabad, and there there's a big mountain of electronic junk in the city that is on *fire*, spewing poisonous fumes into the air.

  6. 00:02:33 --> 00:03:01

    Why are we doing this? Why are designers designing  stuff that destroys the environment in its making? And destroys the environment in its replacement? This is what Papanek was really angry at – that first of all, we shouldn't be designing these things; second of all, you know, we could design it with less difficult material, material that was easier to take out and use again in some other purpose.

  7. 00:03:01 --> 00:03:33

    But we don't. We have these wonderful  compound materials. We join wood and leather and aluminum and titanium and all this stuff  together in a way that can't be taken apart. Even something like a milk carton that we all use, which is made out of cardboard – can't be recycled, because it's covered by a plastic, and to take the plastic off of it – yeah – there are some people who can remove it, but lots of the recycling places  cannot separate the plastic from the cardboard.

  8. 00:03:33 --> 00:04:01

    Why can't we do better than that? So, why don't designers change what they're doing? Well, here's why: Designers have no power. Designers have no say in what they're asked to do. Most designers are great at what they do. They're very skilled. But they're in the middle level of a company: low level and middle level. They very seldom get to say what the company should be doing.

  9. 00:04:01 --> 00:04:32

    And designers work in basically one of three places. They work in a university, or they work for a company as part of a design team, or they work in a design consultancy where they have clients. Well, in a university, they're not doing anything. They're teaching; and so, actually, I think we can forget them for the moment. And in a consultancy, well, you have  to do whatever your clients ask you to do.

  10. 00:04:32 --> 00:05:03

    And if you're in the company, well, you have  to do whatever your boss or your boss's boss or maybe the boss of your boss's boss asks to be done. And when a new product is being developed, almost never is a design team asked to help in defining what the product should be. They're only called in when the problem has already been defined, when we say, "Here's what we're going to build next." and, "Oh yeah, designers... Do something... Make it pretty." That's not right. That's not what we're good at.

  11. 00:05:03 --> 00:05:30

    Why aren't we in a position of *authority*, and the answer is because we don't train people properly. Design education is flawed in most cases because what we learn in a design education is to be a wonderful craftsperson, to build beautiful, wonderful objects that people love. But we don't worry about the *impact* on the environment, and we don't learn about the *system* in which we are designing things.

  12. 00:05:30 --> 00:06:03

    And if you want to be a leader in a company where you get to say "What should be built?" then you have to  actually take a larger point of view.   We need to change design education so that people are understanding the nature of business, the nature of the world, the nature of world economics, the nature of trade, the nature of civilization, for that matter, *humanity-centered design*, so that we can say, "Look, this product may make us a lot of money, but it's evil for the planet; we must  change it; we can't do that."

  13. 00:06:03 --> 00:06:11

    But you have to be in a position of authority to be able to make that happen. And that's why we have to change design education.

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