Quotes from Donald A. Norman

Usable designs are not necessarily enjoyable to use.

Technology does not make us smarter. People do not make technology smart. It is the combination of the two, the person plus the artifact, that is smart. Together, with our tools, we are a powerful combination. On the other hand, if we are suddenly without these external devices, then we don't do very well. In many ways, we do become less smart.

Never underestimate the power of social pressures on behavior, causing otherwise sensible people to do things they know are wrong and possibly dangerous.

To understand products, it is not enough to understand design or technology: it is critical to understand business.

Los recordatorios constituyen un buen ejemplo de las compensaciones relativas entre las funciones del conocimiento interno frente a las del externo.

Best mapping: Controls are mounted directly on the item to be controlled.        Ã¢â'¬Â¢  Second-best mapping: Controls are as close as possible to the object to be controlled.        Ã¢â'¬Â¢  Third-best mapping: Controls are arranged in the same spatial configuration as the objects to be controlled.

So we must design our machines on the assumption that people will make errors.

POET, The Psychology of Everyday Things

Procedural knowledge is largely subconscious, residing at the behavioral level of processing.

Semantics is the study of meaning. Semantic constraints are those that rely upon the meaning of the situation to control the set of possible actions. In the case of the motorcycle, there is only one meaningful location for the rider, who must sit facing forward. The

Herbert Read thought we would need a mystical theory to connect beauty and function. Well, it took one hundred years, but today we have that theory, one based in biology, neuroscience, and psychology, not mysticism.

business that makes and sells durable goods faces a problem: As soon as everyone who wants the product has it, then there is no need for more.

Product development involves an incredible mix of disciplines, from designers to engineers and programmers, manufacturing, packaging, sales, marketing, and service.

Producing a good product requires a lot more than good technical skills: it requires a harmonious, smoothly functioning, cooperative and respectful organization.

When a new way of doing things is vastly superior to another, then the merits of change outweigh the difficulty of change. Just because something is different does not mean it is bad. If we only kept to the old, we could never improve.

Most of human behavior is a result of subconscious processes. We are unaware of them. As a result, many of our beliefs about how people behave—including beliefs about ourselves—are wrong. That is why we have the multiple social and behavioral sciences, with a good dash of mathematics, economics, computer science, information science, and neuroscience.

The study of slips is the study of the psychology of everyday errors—what Freud called "the psychopathology of everyday life." Freud believed that slips have hidden, dark meanings, but most are accounted for by rather simple mental mechanisms.

the real problem is that numerical correlations say nothing of people's real needs, of their desires, and of the reasons for their activities. As a result, these numerical data can give a false impression of people. But the use of big data and market analytics is seductive: no travel, little expense, and huge numbers, sexy charts, and impressive statistics, all very persuasive to the executive team trying to decide which new products to develop.

We need to remove the word failure from our vocabulary, replacing it instead with learning experience. To fail is to learn: we learn more from our failures than from our successes. With success, sure, we are pleased, but we often have no idea why we succeeded. With failure, it is often possible to figure out why, to ensure that it will never happen again.

good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.

A positive emotional state is ideal for creative thought, but it is not very well suited for getting things done.

Las cosas importantes a observar deben ser visibles y estar señaladas con claridad; los resultados de cada acto deben ser inmediatamente evidentes.

We bridge the Gulf of Execution through the use of signifiers, constraints, mappings, and a conceptual model. We bridge the Gulf of Evaluation through the use of feedback and a conceptual model.

A major cause of error is time stress. Time is often critical, especially in such places as manufacturing or chemical processing plants and hospitals. But even everyday tasks can have time pressures. Add