“I guess part of what excites me about the Web, and makes me feel good about doing information architecture, is that it helps people get better at sharing information. People have used the metaphor that in creating the Internet we’re creating a central nervous system for the planet, wiring ourselves together and making the ways that we’re able to communicate and share information much more fluid.” - Peter Morville

Read CIOInsight’s interview with Peter “Expert Voices: Peter Morville on Why Information Architecture Matters” here

Also, check out Peter’s books on Information Architecture and Findability

“The best user experiences are enchanting.  They help the user enter an alternate reality, whether it’s the world of making music, writing, sharing photos, coding, or managing a project.” - Kathy Sierra

Read Kathy’s article “User Enchantment…” here

“We shouldn’t assume that the general viewing public is an idiot.  We should try to evolve the medium by making intuitive systems that educate the user - not design to what level we think they can handle” - Joshua Davis

“Interaction design isn’t only about fixing problems; it’s also about facilitating interactions between people in richer, deeper, better ways - that is, finding new ways to better connect human beings to one another, and by doing so, make the world a better place to live” - Designing for Interaction by Dan Saffer

Check out Dan’s book Designing for Interaction for a great overview of interaction design

“The life of a designer is a life of fight. Fight against the ugliness. Just like a doctor fights against disease. For us, the visual disease is what we have around, and what we try to do is cure it somehow with design” - Massimo Vignelli in the film Helvetica

Purchase the flim Helvetica here

“Being customer focused is not some ‘nice thing to do.’ Customer focus is about hard-edged business. Customers are hugely impatient on the Web. They don’t need to hang around a website that is not directly focused on them. Customer focus is the beginning, middle and end of a successful web strategy.” - Gerry McGovern

Read UIE’s interview with Gerry McGovern, “The Importance of a Customer-Centric Design Approach,” here

“Even the best designers produce successful products only if their designs solve the right problems. A wonderful interface to the wrong features will fail.” - Jakob Nielsen

Read Jakob’s article “The Myth of the Genius Designer” here

“Design is about humans creating great works that help or improve the lives of other humans, often in profound ways, and often in ways that are quite small and go unnoticed” - Garr Reynolds

Read Garr’s article here

“Your customers are not you. They don’t look like you, they don’t think like you, they don’t do the things that you do, they don’t have your expectations or assumptions. If they did, they wouldn’t be your customers; they’d be your competitors.” - Mike Kuniavsky of Adaptive Path

“While market researchers describe how the world is, creative people describe how it could be. Their thinking is often so fresh that they zag even when they should zig. But without fresh thinking, there’s no chance of magic” - The Brand Gap by Marty Neumeier

Check out Marty’s book The Brand Gap. Great quick read to understand branding and its power