Quotes from Donald A. Norman

Finally, people have to actually purchase it. It doesn't matter how good a product is if, in the end, nobody uses it.

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.

The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.

Poor feedback can be worse than no feedback at all, because it is distracting, uninformative, and in many cases irritating and anxiety-provoking.

original ideas are the easy part. Actually producing the idea as a successful product is what is hard.

Simplification is as much in the mind as it is in the device.

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.

Affordances define what actions are possible. Signifiers specify how people discover those possibilities: signifiers are signs, perceptible signals of what can be done. Signifiers are of far more importance to designers than are affordances.

I believe that the Apple Shuffle is an excellent compromise among the conflicting requirements of simplicity, elegance, size, battery life, and function

Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principals [of design] come from understanding of people. They remain true forever.

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 in

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.

Simplicity design axiom: The complexity of the information appliance is that of the task, not the tool. The technology is invisible.

People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms.

Complexity is acceptable as long as it is intelligible and necessary. We want to avoid needless complications.

If you think the products don't match what you want from a product, don't buy it.

Attractive things work better When you wash and wax a car, it drives better, doesn't it? Or at least feels like it does.

Attractive things work better.

The hardest part of design ... is keeping features out.

Also note that invariably when we design something that can be used by those with disabilities, we often make it better for everyone

Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.

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

Behavioral design is all about feeling in control. Includes: usability, understanding, but also the feel.

I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doing