Hello! I'm Norman. I'm a designer.

Here are some of the things I've been doing.

I've been working in video games. Currently, I'm a senior UX designer at Possibility Space working on an unannounced project. Before that, I worked at BioWare doing UX design for the next game in the Dragon Age franchise.

Prior to that, I've been designing interactive exhibits and experiences at Second Story (now part of Razorfish) as an associate creative director for experience design. In my time there, I led or worked on projects for SFMOMA, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, Gonzaga University, the National Archives, Nike, Holland America Line, and others.

I've been collecting my thoughts on design, in short. Studying design is a passion of mine and I've been taking notes on my wide-ranging reading list. Go ahead and copy off my homework at designinshort.com.

I've been trying to just shut up and make things. I like to undertake projects to make things both big and small because I think it's a fundamental part of being human. You can see what I've made on shutupandmakeit.com

I've been studying interaction design at CMU's School of Design. I graduated back in 2011, but it's worth mentioning because my time there set many of the foundations for my thinking on design. If you're interested, take a look at my thesis paper about service design, tangibility, and co-creation (or if you're short on time, the accompanying video).

And I've done some other things too. For example, I studied computer engineering before design. Read about it on my resume.

Wow! I'm surprised you've read this far! In that case, let me chat you up a little bit more.

I'm a fan of design because I see it as a tool for exploring and highlighting context. Social context, cultural context, spatial context, emotional context. I feel like so many issues, big and small, spring from a lack of consideration for context. To me, designers are people who want to change that by making things in the world.

It's why designers are so quick to study all the tiny, mundane details. We want to know where it happens, how it happens, why it happens, who it happens to, and what it means to them. We know that it's in the everyday moments that magical things happen, but only if the designed objects, environments, and interactions around us leave space for it.

It's why designers love models. A sketch, a diagram, a prototype. These are a ways of seeing beyond a single object to focus on the web of people, places, interactions, and systems it's tangled up in. Models let us make context the object of design.

It's why designers always want to make things before we even really know what it is. Making things puts us in direct connection with our shared reality, an experience that is both empowering and humbling. The more people making things, the better, because it's how we come to understand and respect our world (and, just maybe, the people living in it).

I strive to be the type of designer that approaches the world with humility and hopefulness, one who empowers others to see, understand, and shape the contexts around them.

Reach out if you'd like to talk.