Gallery | inspireUX - words to inspire user experience designers

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"Technological advances have always been driven more by a mind-set of 'I can' than 'I should'... Technologists love to cram maximum functionality into their products. That's 'I can' thinking, which is driven by peer competition and market forces... But this approach ignores the far more important question of how the consumer will actually use the device... focus on what we should be doing, not just what we can." - John Maeda

"It's always helpful to look outside of the web for your inspiration, to places where you might not at first expect to find a solution. The world is a collage of inspiration, from newspapers, magazine publishing, and advertising to product design, architecture and the fine arts." - Andy Clarke

“Designing a website can be a bit like being a kid and inheriting a sweetshop. It’s easy to get carried away. There are so many choices. A website can be like an attic that never fills up. Space is not the problem. Attention is.” - Gerry McGovern

"In the absence of detailed information, we all work from assumptions about who the user is, what he or she does, and what type of system would meet his or her needs. Following these assumptions, we tend to design for ourselves, not for other people." - Human Factor: Designing Computer Systems for People by Richard Rubinstein and Harry Hersh

"I view a user experience as a conversation between people separated over the distance of time. At one end of that conversation are those who create the product; at the other, the people who use it. In between is the product itself—with a design that either helps or hinders; creates a barrier-free interaction or shouts in an unfamiliar language. Because this conversation does not happen in real time, we are not there to smooth over the rough spots and make sure that we have spoken clearly. Instead, we have to build our understanding of those users into every aspect of the design, by putting people—users—at the center of the design process." - Whitney Quesenbery

"Organizations need to take design thinking seriously. We need to spend more time making people conscious of design thinking — not because design is wondrous or magical, but simply because by focusing on it, we'll make it better. And that's an imperative for any business, because design thinking is indisputably a catalyst for innovation productivity." - Tim Brown

"The worst misstep one can make in design is to solve the wrong problem" - John Carroll

"The measure of quality in web design should not be good looks, but graceful transformation: pages that can be accessed under different conditions and keep their integrity... A real web designer embraces the medium and designs for maximum inclusivity." - Sarah Horton

"It's standard practice to design with our user's goals in mind. Too often, though, we tend to focus only on the immediate goals... Although we may produce usable and successful designs, we have ignored the user's larger context. They may be bored, tired, at work, grinding away at a long term deliverable. They may be entering countless rows of data into a spreadsheet. People love to have fun. Without sacrificing usability, let's bring a little fun into our designs." - Loren Baxter

“Effective information architects make the complex clear; they make the information understandable to other human beings. If they succeed in doing that, they’re good information architects. If they fail, they’re not.” - Information Anxiety 2 by Richard Wurman

“Good writing for the web is about creating communications in which people can find what they need, understand what they find, and act appropriately on that understanding in the time and effort that they think it is worth. Plain language is part of user-centered design.” - Ginny Redish

"The ultimate aim of all creative activity is to bring happiness to people's lives... The success of an experience is measured by the amount of happiness it brings to life and the amount of people willing to live the experience, not by its individual qualities." - Andrë Braz

“We all like to think of ourselves as user centric designers, but exactly how much effort do you put into knowing your users before beginning the design process? Take the time to really understand them the best you can... Understanding your users not only improves the quality of your work, but also helps move the discussion away from the personal preferences of the client, to the people who’s opinion really matters.” - Paul Boag

"Design has a social function and its true purpose is to improve people's lives." - Nokia Design Manifesto

"Life is conversational. Web design should be the same way. On the web, you're talking to someone you've probably never met - so it's important to be clear and precise. Thus, well structured navigation and content organization goes hand in hand with having a good conversation." - Chikezie Ejiasi

“People’s behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives.” - Thomas Mann

"Users don’t care about convention and heuristics and all of that. Users just want to have a good experience achieving the outcomes they set out to achieve in your site/system/product. Surely we, as experience designers, can not only design a non-problematic experience. Surely we can actually create a pleasurable experience through the way that people interact with our content or functionality." - Leisa Reichelt

“Saying that people are the focus of user experience is stating the obvious, but when we are deeply engaged in our own work as user experience designers, it can be difficult to constantly remember to keep people at the center of design. For most of us, it’s hard not to get caught up in the skills and techniques that the technologies we work with require and even harder not to want to use technology to solve problems. But as user experience designers, we need to keep our eye on people.” - Whitney Quesenbery

"It's easy to forget, in a world of incredible possibility and infinite creativity, the power of simplicity and the importance of a solid customer experience foundation. This is especially true related to online user experience... As we look forward in anticipation of what's to come, it's important not to lose sight of managing the founding elements of customer experience." - Leigh Duncan

Catriona Cornett
catriona@inspireux.com
(more about me)
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- New blog post: Focus on what you should be doing, not just what you can http://tinyurl.com/7g2k7s 1 day ago
- New blog post: It's helpful to look outside of the web for your inspiration http://tinyurl.com/79b47a 4 days ago
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