On Aug 12, 2013, at 12:25 PM, Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Victor Papanek was perhaps the first designer I ever read, and he
> had a great influence on me. Design of Everyday Thongs was patterned (in my
> mind) after his writings. But I never cited him -- my work was quite
> different, so there was no opportunity.
Interesting. I've always connected them. Of course I read Papanek earlier, but I saw 'The Psychology of Everyday Things" as a similar but less political, less angry, and more useful reminder that designers really do need to care about the people they are designing for. I'd say 'Design for the Real World' promoted, as the title implies, design for the world where 'The Psychology of Everyday Things' promoted designing for people. (The two are hardly mutually exclusive but are also not the same.)
About the same time I read your book, I read Dana Cuff's "Architects' People" (in the book by the same name. It came out the year after yours.) She asked several famous architects how they imagined the people who used their buildings. The answers were quite revealing (and often very depressing.) It inspired me to ask the same question of graphic designers. (I got similar answers.) I don't know if the resultant design work is demonstrably different but she helped move me from designing for people to designing for persons.
Your point about influence vs. citation is what I was obliquely getting at with my silly joke about Papanek starting to have an influence for forty years. I don't know if the waves of my awareness of other people's awareness of 'Design for the Real World' tracks with book sales but it does seem like every few years a bunch of people say "Oh. Yeah. He's right. Wait--when did he write this?"
Gunnar
Gunnar Swanson
East Carolina University
graphic design program
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cfac/soad/graphic/index.cfm
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Gunnar Swanson Design Office
1901 East 6th Street
Greenville NC 27858
USA
http://www.gunnarswanson.com
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+1 252 258-7006
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