Top 68 Donald A. Norman Quotes
#1. Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.
Donald A. Norman
#2. Rule of thumb: if you think something is clever and sophisticated beware-it is probably self-indulgence.
Donald A. Norman
#3. Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion.
Donald A. Norman
#4. The best kind of design isn't necessarily an object, a space, or a structure: it's a process- dynamic and adaptable.
Donald A. Norman
#5. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#6. The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.
Donald A. Norman
#7. In the university, professors make up artificial problems. In the real world, the problems do not come in nice, neat packages. They have to be discovered.
Donald A. Norman
#8. Only the most sophisticated of beings can lie and cheat, and get away with it.
Donald A. Norman
#9. If designers and researchers do not sometimes fail, it is a sign that they are not trying hard enough - they are not thinking the great creative thoughts that will provide breakthroughs in how we do things.
Donald A. Norman
#10. Simplification is as much in the mind as it is in the device.
Donald A. Norman
#11. Complexity is acceptable as long as it is intelligible and necessary. We want to avoid needless complications.
Donald A. Norman
#12. Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principals [of design] come from understanding of people. They remain true forever.
Donald A. Norman
#13. It is easy to design devices that work well when everything goes as planned. The hard and necessary part of design is to make things work well even when things do not go as planned.
Donald A. Norman
#14. When you have trouble with things - whether it's figuring out whether to push or pull a door or the arbitrary vagaries of the modern computer and electronics industries - it's not your fault. Don't blame yourself: blame the designer.
Donald A. Norman
#15. In the consumer economy taste is not the criterion in the marketing of expensive soft drinks, usability is not the primary criterion in the marketing of home and office appliances. We are surrounded with objects of desire, not objects of use.
Donald A. Norman
#16. In design it is important to shoe the effect of an action ... Feedback is critical.
Donald A. Norman
#17. Go to the bookstore and look at how many bookshelves are filled with books trying to explain how to work the devices. We don't see shelves of books on how to use television sets, telephones, refrigerators or washing machines. Why should we for computer-based applications?
Donald A. Norman
#18. Cognition attempts to make sense of the world: emotion assigns value.
Donald A. Norman
#19. To understand products, it is not enough to understand design or technology: it is critical to understand business.
Donald A. Norman
#20. The problem with the designs of most engineers is that they are too logical. We have to accept human behavior the way it is, not the way we would wish it to be.
Donald A. Norman
#22. If you're more susceptible to interruption, you do more out of the box thinking.
Donald A. Norman
#23. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#24. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#25. If people keep buying poorly designed products, manufacturers and designers will think they are doing the right thing and continue as usual.
Donald A. Norman
#27. original ideas are the easy part. Actually producing the idea as a successful product is what is hard.
Donald A. Norman
#28. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#30. A challenge to the designers of the world: Make signs unnecessary.
Donald A. Norman
#31. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#32. Standardization is indeed the fundamental principle of desperation: when no other solution appears possible, simply design everything the same way, so people only have to learn once. If
Donald A. Norman
#33. Most expert, skilled behavior works this way, whether it is playing tennis or a musical instrument, or doing mathematics and science. Experts minimize the need for conscious reasoning. Philosopher
Donald A. Norman
#34. We are victims of our own success. We have let technology lead the way, pushing ever faster to newer, faster, and more powerful systems, with nary a moment to rest, contemplate, and to reflect upon why, how, and for whom all this energy has been expended.
Donald A. Norman
#35. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#36. Having the best product means nothing if the people won't buy it.
Donald A. Norman
#37. Behavioral design is all about feeling in control. Includes: usability, understanding, but also the feel.
Donald A. Norman
#38. One way of overcoming the fear of the new is to make it look like the old.
Donald A. Norman
#39. Even systems that do not use menus need to provide some structure: appropriate constraints and forcing functions, natural good mapping, and all the tools of feedforward and feedback. The most effective way of helping people remember is to make it unnecessary.
Donald A. Norman
#41. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#42. What makes something simple or complex? It's not the number of dials or controls or how many features it has: It is whether the person using the device has a good conceptual model of how it operates.
Donald A. Norman
#43. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#44. Simplicity design axiom: The complexity of the information appliance is that of the task, not the tool. The technology is invisible.
Donald A. Norman
#45. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#46. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#47. The vicious cycle starts: if you fail at something, you think it is your fault. Therefore you think you can't do that task. As a result, next time you have to do the task, you believe you can't, so you don't even try. The result is that you can't, just as you thought.
Donald A. Norman
#49. How do you discover a need that nobody yet knows about? This is where the product breakthroughs come through.
Donald A. Norman
#50. Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible,
Donald A. Norman
#51. When things go right, people credit their own abilities and intelligence. The onlookers do the reverse. When they see things go well for someone else, they sometimes credit the environment, or luck.
Donald A. Norman
#52. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#53. Finally, people have to actually purchase it. It doesn't matter how good a product is if, in the end, nobody uses it.
Donald A. Norman
#54. I'm not a fan of technology . I'm a fan of pedagogy, of understanding how people learn and the most effective learning methods. But technology enables some exciting changes.
Donald A. Norman
#56. It was always amusing to be inside Apple and read what journalists said we were doing
Donald A. Norman
#57. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#58. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#59. The current paradigm is so thoroughly established that the only way to change is to start over again.
Donald A. Norman
#60. 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.
Donald A. Norman
#61. Cognition and emotion are tightly intertwined, which means that the designers must design with both in mind.
Donald A. Norman
#62. Learning should take place when it is needed, when the learner is interested, not according to some arbitrary, fixed schedule
Donald A. Norman
#63. The major problems facing the development of products that are safer, less prone to error, and easier to use and understand are not technological: they are social and organizational.
Donald A. Norman
#65. Attractive things work better When you wash and wax a car, it drives better, doesn't it? Or at least feels like it does.
Donald A. Norman
#66. Could we ever switch to this or any of the many other rational systems? Unlikely: tradition is difficult to overcome.
Donald A. Norman
#67. A brilliant solution to the wrong problem can be worse than no solution at all: solve the correct problem.
Donald A. Norman
#68. Computer scientists have so far worked on developing powerful programming languages that make it possible to solve the technical problems of computation. Little effort has gone toward devising the languages of interaction.
Donald A. Norman
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