“Ironically, the thing that will likely make the least improvement in the ease of use of software-based products is new technology. There is little difference technically between a complicated, confusing program and a simple, fun, and powerful product.” – Alan Cooper
This quote is from Alan’s book “The Inmates are Running the Asylum.” This quote was also mentioned in Interaction-Design.org’s quote of the day.
“While I acknowledge that there is a need for art, fun, and a general good time on the web, I believe that the main goal of most web projects should be to make it easy for customers to perform useful tasks.” – Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen
Read more from Jakob in his book Designing Web Usability.
“Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don’t hesitate to make it beautiful.” – Design House Stockholm
This quote is the philosophy of the design company Design House Stockholm. The quote was most recently mentioned as echoing Daniel Burka’s design philosophy, and has also been cited in Joshua Porter’s article “The Shaker Design Philosphy.”
“A good user experience designer needs to be able to see both the forest and the trees. That means user experience has implications that go far beyond usability, visual design, and physical affordances. As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions.” – Eric Reiss
Read Eric’s article “A definition of ‘user experience’” for his thoughts on how UX is the sum of a series of interactions.
“Design has been viewed as being aesthetic. Design equals How Something Looks. You see this attitude to design in every part of society—clothing design to interior design, less so in product design, and yes, in web design…. I think design covers so much more than the aesthetic. Design is fundamentally more. Design is usability. It is Information Architecture. It is Accessibility. This is all design.” – Mark Boulton
Read more from Mark in his 2005 article “Turning the corner: Designing for Web 2.0.“
“Findability precedes usability. In the alphabet and on the Web. You can’t use what you can’t find.” – Ambient Findability by Peter Morville
Read more from Peter on “how you find your way in an age of information overload” in his book Ambient Findability.
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Catriona Cornett