Editing Alan Cooper (software designer) (section)

{{short description|American computer programmer}}
{{redirect|Cooper (company)|other companies with the name|Cooper (disambiguation)#Businesses}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Alan Cooper
| image       = AlanCooper.jpg
| caption     = Cooper in September 2010
| birth_date  = {{birth date and age|1952|06|03}}
| birth_place = [[San Francisco, California]], USA
| other_names =
| known_for   = [[Visual Basic (classic)|Visual Basic]], [[user experience]], [[interaction design]], [[persona (marketing)|personas]], Goal-Directed design, ''About Face'', ''The Inmates Are Running The Asylum'', [[VBX]]
| occupation  =
}}

'''Alan Cooper''' (born June 3, 1952) is an American [[Software design|software designer]] and [[software programmer|programmer]]. Widely recognized as the "Father of [[Visual Basic (classic)|Visual Basic]]",<ref>Waite, Mitchell (1992). The Waite Group's Visual Basic How-To. Waite Group Press. {{ISBN|1-878739-09-3}}, {{ISBN|978-1-878739-09-4}}, pp. dedication page</ref> Cooper is also known for his books ''About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design'' and ''The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity''. As founder of Cooper, a leading interaction design consultancy, he created the Goal-Directed design methodology and pioneered the use of [[persona (marketing)|personas]] as practical [[interaction design]] tools to create high-tech products. On April 28, 2017, Alan was inducted into the [[Computer History Museum#Fellows|Computer History Museum's]] Hall of Fellows "for his invention of the visual development environment in Visual BASIC, and for his pioneering work in establishing the field of interaction design and its fundamental tools."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/2017-chm-fellow-alan-cooper-father-of-visual-basic/|title=2017 CHM Fellow Alan Cooper: Father of Visual Basic - Computer History Museum|website=www.computerhistory.org|date=11 April 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/alan-cooper/|title=Alan Cooper - Computer History Museum|website=www.computerhistory.org|date=18 April 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C10Pep7Rfa0|title=2017 Fellow Awards Highlights|last=Computer History Museum|date=17 May 2017|via=YouTube}}</ref>