“The customers, the visitors, the patients, the readers, the guests, whatever you call them - their experience is what determines the company’s success or failure. So focus first on the overall experience. It’s strategic, not tactical. It’s about the people, not the tool. Focusing on the larger picture first will set a better context in which to work - later - on usability tactics.” - Mark Hurst

Read Mark’s article “The top 8 mistakes in usability (and companies investing in it)” here.

“Interface design isn’t only about making a device or application look attractive… it’s about making an appropriately pleasing application or device that people find useful and usable and want to integrate into their lives.” - Designing for Interaction by Dan Saffer

If you don’t already have it, be sure to get Dan’s book Designing for Interaction.

“Enable brands to move at relationship speed - a threshold reached when every consumer interaction - a bit of data or pattern of behavior - is instantly and intuitively transformed into a relevant, meaningful brand response.” - Brian Kaiser

Quote submitted by Brian Kaiser of Targetbase XACT. Thanks, Brian!

If you want your own quote to be featured on inspireUX, or have a favorite quote from someone else, submit it and it may be posted! Please note that while I like reading all sorts of quotes, only those related in some way to user experience (or fields that impact user experience) will be considered for posting. I’d like to keep this site as focused as possible on UX quotes. Thanks!

“Good designers relentlessly generate lots of ideas and open-mindedly consider alternative solutions. At no time are good designers frightened to entertain a crazy, competing, or uncomfortable idea.” - Karl Ulrich

Read Karl’s article “Design A Solution” from Fast Company here

“Like all forms of design, visual design is about problem solving, not about personal preference or unsupported opinion.” - Making the Web Work: Designing Effective Web Applications by Bob Baxley

If you like this quote, you can find this and the rest of Bob’s thoughts in his book Making the Web Work: Designing Effective Web Applications

“If you look at some of the best, most inspirational practitioners in our field you’ll see that they think of their work, not as a job, but as a calling. They see the impact of technology on people’s lives as important. They feel that good design makes the world a better place — and that bad design can make life miserable… So my advice is: find your passion, pursue it and your career will take care of itself.” - David Travis

As someone relatively new to this field, this quote really spoke to me, and is probably my favorite out of all that I have posted so far. No matter what field you’re in, passion is extremely important.

Read an interview with David Travis on the User Experience Network here.

“A truly great design is innovative and revolutionary. It’s built on a fresh idea that breaks all previous rules and assumptions but is so elegant it appears simple and natural once it has been created.” - David Ngo

View David’s humorous video “Design Session 01″ here

“Businesses have now come to recognize that providing a quality user experience is an essential, sustainable competitive advantage. It is user experience that forms the customer’s impression of the company’s offerings, it is user experience that differentiates the company from its competitors, and it is user experience that determines whether your customer will ever come back.” - The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett

Purchase Jesse’s book The Elements of User Experience here or check out Peter Morville’s article “User Experience Strategy” that mentions this quote.

“What exactly does it mean to be a compassionate designer? It means doing things that help us not only understand, but relate to the users we design for. To feel for them. To put ourselves in their shoes, even if our own lives are totally opposite from them. Sound simple? It is. You just have to do it.” - David Armano

Another great one from David. Read his article on Creating Compassionate Designers for tips on how to develop compassion for our users.

“The designer… has a passion for doing something that fits somebody’s needs, but that is not just a simple fix. The designer has a dream that goes beyond what exists, rather than fixing what exists… the designer wants to create a solution that fits in a deeper situational or social sense.” - David Kelley, Founder of IDEO, in Bringing Design to Software by Terry Winograd

Purchase Bringing Design to Software here or check out an interview with David Kelley for some interesting insights on design.