Alan Cooper

For this installment of Pioneers of Design, we have Alan Cooper.

What can I say about Alan? Alan wrote such seminal books as “The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy” and “About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design.” He is responsible for introducing goal-directed design (emphasizing understanding a user’s desired end-state and their motivations for getting there), as well as personas and pair design.

His emphasis on my own work can’t be stated enough as I wouldn’t be where I am today without his writing and corresponding influence.

For those of you who don’t know about Alan Cooper, read his books early in your career (and often).