Donald A. Norman Quotes

59 quotes in 772 categories

• Technology usually provides a series of tradeoffs. Each asset is offset by a deficit...A major problem occurs when those who suffer from technology's defecits and…
• In design it is important to shoe the effect of an action. ... Feedback is critical.
• Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principals [of design] come from understanding of people. They remain true forever.
• If you're more susceptible to interruption, you do more out of the box thinking.
• Behavioral design is all about feeling in control. Includes: usability, understanding, but also the feel.
• I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doing
• Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability - they should go hand in hand.
• The designer has an obligation to provide an appropriate conceptual model for the way that the device works. It doesn't have to completely accurate but…
• We expert teachers know that motivation and emotional impact are what matter.
• And to get real work experience, you need a job, and most jobs will require you to have had either real work experience or a…
• Complexity is acceptable as long as it is intelligible and necessary. We want to avoid needless complications.
• In my opinion, no single design is apt to be optimal for everyone.
• Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design: a simple lock should not require instructions.
• What makes something simple or complex? It's not the number of dials or controls or how many features it has: It is whether the person…
• Will robot teachers replace human teachers? No, but they can complement them. Moreover, the could be sufficient in situations where there is no alternative––to enable…
• The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.
• Simplification is as much in the mind as it is in the device.
• In the university, professors make up artificial problems. In the real world, the problems do not come in nice, neat packages. They have to be…
• Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion.
• The hardest part of design ... is keeping features out.

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