Norm Cox

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norm Cox

Norman Lloyd "Norm" Cox (* 1951 in Baton Rouge , Louisiana, United States of America) is an American interaction designer who is best known for inventing the hamburger menu icon .

Influence on interaction design

Icons on the star
Icons on the star

Norm Cox is best known for his hamburger menu icon design , a stack of three horizontal black lines. These lines are similar to a list of items that serve as visual reminders for menu lists. The hamburger menu was designed to be simple, functionally memorable and to mimic the look of the resulting menu list displayed. He originally designed it as a "container" for contextual menu selections on the Xerox Star , much like the contextual menu that is displayed today when we right-click objects. The icon is still used extensively today as an indicator of hidden menus on websites and smartphone apps. In addition, Cox designed the visual style of the Xerox Star's user interface elements and icons, including the dog-eared corner document icon and folder, which are still in use today.

Personal life

Cox was born in Baton Rouge , Louisiana , United States of America, in 1951. In his spare time, Cox enjoys fly fishing, bluegrass music, art, and woodwork.

education

Cox began his undergraduate studies at Louisiana State University , where he Architecture majored. During his time there, Cox enrolled in a variety of courses on a variety of topics. While Cox was originally studying architecture, he never graduated from college; after his freshman year at Louisiana State University, Cox put his education on hold and joined Xerox's Office Products Division in Dallas , TX in 1972 .

Career

Incoming mail
NCox's "Incoming Mail"

Cox began his career as a draftsman and mechanical designer at the Xerox Office Products Division in Dallas, where he designed parts and mechanisms for the Xerox line of electronic typewriters. In 1975 he met Robin Kinkead, director of Industrial Design and Human Factors at Xerox, whose group needed a graphic designer to develop printwheel and display fonts for the typewriters. After joining the Kinkead team, he was introduced to the Xerox Alto , a computer prototype based on a graphical user interface and desktop metaphor. He helped test their software for usability and often used native software called markup to create digital cartoons. Soon after, Xerox PARC needed someone to help create images on their screen (icons) that represented objects and machine functions. Cox sent in some samples of his digital work that included "incoming mail" and was invited to work at PARC as a visual designer. In 1978 he joined Xerox PARC in Palo Alto , California to join the Xerox Star development team. For the next several years he worked alongside Wallace Judd, Bill Bowman, and Dave Smith to design and test the Xerox Star GUI and icons . In 1982 he co-founded his design consultancy, Cox & Hall, which focuses on experience, ease of use and design. He served as a consultant for international clients and projects spanning various industries and products. From 1988 to 1997, Cox was an IBM corporate user experience design consultant for the IBM design program in Armonk, NY. From 2007 to 2015 he was a consultant and director of user experience for Samsung Telecommunications America in Richardson, TX. In 1988, he also served as an expert witness on the famous Apple v Microsoft lawsuit for copyright infringement .

Awards and patents

Norm Cox is named through his personal consulting firm Cox & Hall as the inventor of 29 invention and design patents in connection with the design of user interfaces for his customers. He has also received numerous design awards, including the Xerox Opie Award, the Thomas J. Watson Design Excellence Award from IBM , the Lifetime Achievement Award in Design Thinking from the Dallas Chapter of the Usability Professionals Association, and numerous industry awards for traditional graphic design.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan: Who Designed the Hamburger Icon? . In: Gizmodo.com . Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  2. ↑ DigiBarn Software: The (Xerox) World According to standard Cox (on designs of Star icons) . In: Digibarn.com . Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b c d LinkedIn profileTemplate: dead link /! ... nourl  ( page no longer available )
  4. ↑ a b Bio - about . In: Coxhall.com . Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g DigiBarn Software: The (Xerox) World According to Norm Cox (on designs of Star Icons) . Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ Bio - about . Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  7. ↑ BRDNUG Meeting: March 9, 2016 . March 9, 2016. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  8. ↑ About - about . Retrieved August 19, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Cox, Norm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cox, Norman Lloyd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American interaction designer
DATE OF BIRTH 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Baton Rouge , Louisiana, United States of America