Patrick W. Jordan (born November 23, 1967) is a British/American writer and consultant. He advises on design, marketing and brand strategy and has also worked on policy and strategy projects for the UK Government. He is the author of the book Designing Pleasurable Products, on the area of emotional design.
Jordan was born in London, England to an American father and British mother. He grew up in Somerset in the South West of England.
After leaving school Jordan trained as an apprentice with Rolls-Royce Plc. He has also worked as an adventure sports instructor, a motorcycling instructor and served briefly in both the British Army and Royal Navy.
He gained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Bristol in 1989, a master's degree in design and ergonomics from the University of Birmingham in 1990 and a PhD in psychology from the University of Glasgow in 1993.
From 1993 to 2000 Jordan worked at Philips Design in The Netherlands where he specialised in user research and trend analysis. In 2000 he was appointed Head of User Research at Symbian, later becoming Vice-President and Head of Design.
In 2002 he was awarded the Nierenberg Chair of Design at Carnegie-Mellon University.[1] He was the youngest person ever to have held this Chair.
He started his own consulting firm, The Contemporary Trends Institute in 2001 while still at Symbian. This company, which he ran until 2007, had clients including Starbucks, Gillette, Nokia and Microsoft.
In 2001 Jordan co-founded Include,[2] an international conference on inclusive or universal design. This conference is hosted bi-annually by the Royal College of Art.[3]
From 2005 to 2006 he was Chair of Design and Marketing at the University of Leeds.[4] In 2012 he was appointed as a visiting professor at City University London.[4]
Jordan has written or edited six books.