Quotes About Technology

We are creative and imaginative, not mechanical and precise. Machines require precision and accuracy; people don't. And we are particularly bad at providing precise and accurate inputs. So

If the skill is easily automated, it wasn't essential.

Yet surprisingly in this era of screen-based devices, paper tools are still enormously popular and effective, as the number of paper-based diaries and reminders indicates. The

We have become dependent upon our technologies to navigate the world, to hold intelligent conversation, to write intelligently, and to remember.

One way of overcoming the fear of the new is to make it look like the old. This practice is decried by design purists, but in fact, it has its benefits in easing the transition from the old to the new. It

Design is concerned with how things work, how they are controlled, and the nature of the interaction between people and technology.

We must design our technologies for the way people actually behave, not the way we would like them to behave. Moreover, the automobile does

Modern technology can be complex, but complexity by itself is neither good nor bad: it is confusion that is bad. Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion.

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.

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

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

Don't these so-called advances also cause us to lose valuable mental skills? Each technological advance that provides a mental aid also brings along critics who decry the loss of the human skill that has been made less valuable. Fine, I say: if the skill is easily automated, it wasn't essential.

Predicting technology is relatively easy compared to predictions of human behavior, or in this case, the adoption of societal conventions. Will this prediction be true? You

Why does inelegant design persist for so long? This is called the legacy problem, and it will come up several times in this book. Too many devices use the existing standard—that is the legacy. If the symmetrical cylindrical battery were changed, there would also have to be a major change in a huge number of products. The new batteries would not work in older equipment, nor the old batteries in new equipment. Microsoft

la paradoja de la tecnología: por lo general, una mayor capacidad funcional se ha de pagar con una mayor complejidad.

the impact of competitive forces that drive the introduction of extra features, often to excess: the cause of the disease dubbed "featuritis," whose major symptom is "creeping featurism.

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.

Machines that give too much feedback are like backseat drivers.

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.

Design is concerned with how things work, how they are controlled, and the nature of the interaction between people and technology. When done well, the results are brilliant, pleasurable products. When done badly, the products are unusable, leading to great frustration and irritation. Or they might be usable, but force us to behave the way the product wishes rather than as we wish.

Why do people err? Because the designs focus upon the requirements of the system and the machines, and not upon the requirements of people.

Unless it is your ambition to become a nightclub performer and amaze people with great skills of memory, here is a simpler way to dramatically enhance both memory and accuracy: write things down. Writing is a powerful technology: why not use it? Use a pad of paper, or the back of your hand. Write it or type it. Use a phone or a computer. Dictate it. This is what technology is for. The unaided mind is surprisingly limited. It is things that make us smart. Take advantage of them.

It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people.

The unaided mind is surprisingly limited. It is things that make us smart. Take advantage of them.