We were lucky to catch software legend Alan Cooper on his visit to Amsterdam and talk with him at length about design and programming. Alan tells about how he created products like the first incarnation of Visual Basic, and we discuss some fundamentals of interaction design. We also talk about how design fits into the software development process.

Follow Alan via his twitter handle @MRAlanCooper and through tumblr.

This interview was recorded on the 27th of april 2012 at the rehearsal theater of Hettoneelspeelt in Amsterdam.

Interview by @freekl en @arnetimAudio post-production by @mendelt

• Book: About Face - The Essentials of Interaction Design. Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann & David Cronin, 3rd Edition 2007
• Book: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity.Alan Cooper, 2004
• Alan's company website is at Cooper.com, offering services and training in design and UX.
• In this podcast we mention the works of Christopher Alexander and his thoughts on design and architecture.
• Alan also mentions the ideas of Jaron Lanier on the complexity of programming.
• For a bit of history, read about why Alan is called 'The Father of Visual Basic'
• Get even more inspiration from Alan's talk 'Following the Maker's Dream' for this year's Bay Area Maker Faire.

This podcast is in English - Deze podcast is in het Engels