“Choice-fatigued consumers are not looking for another product that hasn’t taken their true needs and desires into consideration. They are looking for companies in which to believe and give their allegiance. They are looking for experiences that cater to their deep-seated desires. This type of engagement requires much more than the latest technological breakthrough: It requires emotional engagement.”  - Sohrab Vossoughi

Read Sohrab’s BusinessWeek article “It’s All About Experience” here.

“Give users what they actually want, not what they say they want.  And whatever you do, don’t give them new features just because your competitors have them!” - Kathy Sierra

Read Kathy’s article “Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak” here.

“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.”- Don Norman

Quote from the article “Sharing Ownership of UX” from UXmatters.

If you’d like to read more by Don Norman, pick up his books for many insightful thoughts on design.

“When creating great experiences, it’s not so much about doing what users expect. Instead, it’s about creating a design that clearly meets their needs at the instant they need it.” - Jared Spool

Read Jared’s article “The Wheres and Whens of Users’ Expectations” here.

“Think of design as an activity that anyone in the organization can engage with… design is not the purview of some special elite group. Design needs to be embedded as a competency within an organization – something that everybody can get involved with.” - Peter Merholz

Listen to the BusinessWeek podcast “It’s the Experience That Counts” for a discussion of how focusing on consumers’ experience of new products and services can inform and shape design.

“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse.” - Paul Rand

Read Joshua Porter’s thoughts on this quote on his blog here.

“Each moment has the potential to increase a user’s confidence or destroy his trust in a product or a company, and each one is an important piece of the whole experience. Why? Because the task a person is attempting to complete at any given moment is the most important task to that person, at that moment. It is our job to make sure nothing goes wrong.  To make sure that moment is enjoyable and productive, and helps our user feel smart.” - Designing the Moment by Robert Hoekman Jr.

Purchase Designing the Moment here or check out a sample chapter of the book on Robert Hoekman Jr.’s site.

Read David Fiorito’s thoughts on Designing the Moment here.

Edit: As noted in the comments, the originally submitted quote was slightly inaccurate, but added the focus on designers.  I’ll keep that version available, but please note that the quote above is more accurate.

“Perfection is achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Quote submitted by Geoff Alday. Geoff found the quote in this presentation by Will Tschumy from Microsoft (Slide 105).  Check out Geoff’s thoughts on the presentation here.

Robyn had also submitted this quote via a comment on the inspireUX post “The life of a designer is a life of fight against the ugliness.”

Do you have a quote you want to see on inspireUX?  Submit it and it may be posted!

“To achieve originality we need to abandon the comforts of habit, reason, and the approval of our peers, and strike out in new directions.” - The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

Purchase The Brand Gap here.

“Your site can do much more than mimic your identity. It can encapsulate the brand personality, whether that is inspirational, trustworthy, or authoritative. These traits were part of the reason why they chose your brand in the first place.” - Sharon Lee

Read Sharon’s article “Human-to-Human Design” here.