Donald A. Norman Quotes About Design
-
Too many companies believe that all they must do is provide a 'neat' technology or some 'cool' product or, sometimes, just good, solid engineering. Nope. All of those are desirable (and solid engineering is a must), but there is much more to a successful product than that: understanding how the product is to be used, design, engineering, positioning, marketing, branding-all matter. It requires designing the Total User Experience.
→ -
Behavioral design is all about feeling in control. Includes: usability, understanding, but also the feel.
→ -
Readers always seem to think that the author has some control over the design of their books.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
If you're more susceptible to interruption, you do more out of the box thinking.
→ -
Attractive things work better.
→ -
User-centered design means working with your users all throughout the project.
→ -
The hardest part of design ... is keeping features out.
→ -
Everything has a personality: everything sends an emotional signal. Even where this was not the intention of the designer, the people who view the website infer personalities and experience emotions. Bad websites have horrible personalities and instill horrid emotional states in their users, usually unwittingly. We need to design things-products, websites, services-to convey whatever personality and emotions are desired.
→ -
In my opinion, no single design is apt to be optimal for everyone.
→ -
The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.
→ -
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.
→ -
Also note that invariably when we design something that can be used by those with disabilities, we often make it better for everyone
→ -
A good designer will actually design the company.
→ -
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.
→ -
Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.
→ -
Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principals [of design] come from understanding of people. They remain true forever.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
A challenge to the designers of the world: Make signs unnecessary.
→ -
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.
→ -
Simplicity design axiom: The complexity of the information appliance is that of the task, not the tool. The technology is invisible.
→ -
In design it is important to shoe the effect of an action. ... Feedback is critical.
→ -
Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability - they should go hand in hand.
→ -
The best kind of design isn't necessarily an object, a space, or a structure: it's a process- dynamic and adaptable.
→ -
I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doing
→ -
It is relatively easy to design for the perfect cases, when everything goes right, or when all the information required is available in proper format
→
Related Authors
-
-
Edward Tufte Statistician -
Philippe Starck Designer -
Guy Kawasaki Author -
Bill Buxton Researcher -
Steve Jobs Entrepreneur -
Ben Shneiderman Computer Scientist -
David Rumelhart Psychologist -
Jakob Nielsen Usability consultant -
Alan Cooper Software programmer -
John Maeda Graphic Designer -
Alan Kay Computer Scientist -
Jesse James Garrett Designer -
Bill Moggridge Designer -
-
Tim Cook Business person -
Dieter Rams Industrial designer -
James J. Gibson Psychologist -
Al Gore Former Vice President of the United States -
Jef Raskin Computer Scientist