Donald A. Norman
It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people's lives.Collection: Motivational
Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principals [of design] come from understanding of people. They remain true forever.Collection: Technology
Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.Collection: Communication
The hardest part of design ... is keeping features out.Collection: Design
The best kind of design isn't necessarily an object, a space, or a structure: it's a process- dynamic and adaptable.Collection: Space
Attractive things work better.Collection: Attractive Things
Knowing how people will use something is essentialCollection: Aquariums
The world is complex, and so too must be the activities that we perform. But that doesn't mean that we must live in continual frustration. No. The whole point of human-centered design is to tame complexity, to turn what would appear to be a complicated tool into one that fits the task, that is understandable, usable, enjoyable.Collection: Mean
Good design is also an act of communication between the designer and the user, except that all the communication has to come about by the appearance of the device itself. The device must explain itself.Collection: Communication
When a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual—even a one-word manual—then it is a failure, poorly designed.Collection: Simple
A challenge to the designers of the world: Make signs unnecessary.Collection: Design
Having the best product means nothing if the people won't buy it.Collection: Business
No product is an island. A product is more than the product. It is a cohesive, integrated set of experiences. Think through all of the stages of a product or service - from initial intentions through final reflections, from first usage to help, service, and maintenance. Make them all work together seamlessly. That's systems thinking.Collection: Reflection
A good designer will actually design the company.Collection: Design
Behavioral design is all about feeling in control. Includes: usability, understanding, but also the feel.Collection: Design
User experience is really the whole totality. Opening the package good example. It's the total experience that matters. And that starts from when you first hear about a product experience is more based upon memory than reality. If your memory of the product is wonderful, you will excuse all sorts of incidental things.Collection: Memories
How do you discover a need that nobody yet knows about? This is where the product breakthroughs come through.Collection: Needs
People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms.Collection: Technology
Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design: a simple lock should not require instructions.Collection: Simple
In design it is important to shoe the effect of an action. ... Feedback is critical.Collection: Shoes
If you think of the product as a service, then the separate parts make no sense - the point of a product is to offer great experiences to its owner, which means that it offers a service. And that experience, that service, comprises the totality of its parts: The whole is indeed made up of all of the parts. The real value of a product consists of far more than the product's components.Collection: Real
Simplification is as much in the mind as it is in the device.Collection: Mind
I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doingCollection: People
Change the attitude toward errors. Think of an object's user as attempting to do a task, getting there by imperfect approximations. Don't think of the user as making errors; think of the actions as approximations of what is desired.Collection: Attitude
I believe that robots should only have faces if they truly need themCollection: Believe
Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion.Collection: Confusion
Only the most sophisticated of beings can lie and cheat, and get away with it.Collection: Lying
I think there is a tendency in science to measure what is measurable and to decide that what you cannot measure must be uninteresting.Collection: Thinking
Technology usually provides a series of tradeoffs. Each asset is offset by a deficit...A major problem occurs when those who suffer from technology's defecits and those who benefit are not the same people.Collection: Technology
Creeping featurism is a disease, fatal if not treated promptly. There are some cures, but, as usual, the best approach is to practice preventative medicine.Collection: Practice
Our information lives will be better served when we are free to get to our information from wherever we are, with any device available.Collection: Information
Hypertext makes a virtue out of lack of organization, allowing ideas and thoughts to be juxtaposed at will. [...] The advent of hypertext is apt to make writing much more difficult, not easier. Good writing, that is.Collection: Writing
You won't catch me giving clear lectures.Collection: Giving
The problem with emotion was that it was clearly something important, but-at least according to the old philosophy-it was something to overcome.Collection: Philosophy
I've been looking at the iPod- the Apple iPod. One of the interesting things about the iPod, one of the things that people love most about it is not the technology; it's the box it comes inCollection: Technology
It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines.Collection: People
The argument is not between adding features and simplicity, between adding capability and usability. The real issue is about design: designing things that have the power required for the job while maintaining understandabili ty, the feeling of control, and the pleasure of accomplishment.Collection: Jobs
As the technology matures, it becomes less and less relevant. The technology is taken for granted. Now, new customers enter the marketplace, customers who are not captivated by technology, but who instead want reliability, convenience, no fuss or bother, and low cost.Collection: Taken
In their work, designers often become expert with the device they are designing. Users are often expert at the task they are trying to perform with the device. [...] Professional designers are usually aware of the pitfalls. But most design is not done by professional designers, it is done by engineers, programmers, and managers.Collection: Design
We delude ourselves if we believe that skilled behavior is easy, that it can come about without effort. We forget the years of tuning, of learning and practice it takes to be skilled at even the most fundamental of human activities: eating, walking, talking, reading, and writing. It is tempting to want instant gratification - immediate expert performance and experiential pleasure - but the truth is that this primarily occurs only after considerable amounts of accretion and tuning.Collection: Reading
When I use a direct manipulation system whether for text editing, drawing pictures, or creating and playing games I do think of myself not as using a computer but as doing the particular task. The computer is, in effect, invisible. The point cannot be overstressed: make the computer system invisible.Collection: Thinking
Innocence lost is not easily regained. The designer simply cannot predict the problems people will have, the misinterpretations that will arise, and the errors that will get made.Collection: Errors
The designer has an obligation to provide an appropriate conceptual model for the way that the device works. It doesn't have to completely accurate but it has to be sufficiently accurate that it will help in both the learning of the operation and also dealing with novel situations.Collection: Design
A big ethical question is what happens after people stop using the device. Does it degrade the environment? Could it have been designed so it would actually be good for the environment?Collection: Ethical Questions
Learning should take place when it is needed, when the learner is interested, not according to some arbitrary, fixed scheduleCollection: Arbitrary
Will robot teachers replace human teachers? No, but they can complement them. Moreover, the could be sufficient in situations where there is no alternative––to enable learning while traveling, or while in remote locations, or when one wishes to study a topic for which there is not easy access to teachers. Robot teachers will help make lifelong learning a practicality. They can make it possible to learn no matter where one is in the world, no matter the time of day. Learning should take place when it is needed, when the learner is interested, not according to some arbitrary, fixed scheduleCollection: Teacher
The designer shouldn't think of a simple dichotomy between errors and correct behavior; rather, the entire interaction should be treated as a cooperative endeavor between person and machine, one in which misconceptions can arise on either side.Collection: Simple
It was always amusing to be inside Apple and read what journalists said we were doingCollection: Apples
Serious accidents are frequently blamed on "human error." Yet careful analysis of such situations shows that the design or installation of the equipment has contributed significantly to the problems. The design team or installers did not pay sufficient attention to the needs of those who would be using the equipment, so confusion or error was almost unavoidable.Collection: Team
Market segmentation s a natural result of the vast differences among peopleCollection: Differences