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Design principle: Take things away until the design breaks, then put that last thing back in.

Alan Cooper

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Alan Cooper
Age: 72
Born: 1952
Born: June 3
Computer Scientist
Software Programmer
Writer
San Francisco County
California
Things
Principles
Break
Lasts
Last
Away
Breaks
Back
Simplicity
Take
Principle
Thing
Design

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While making art you should just do what is in your heart.
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Define what the product will do before you design how the product will do it.
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Well madam, have you looked in the mirror and seen the state of your nose? Boxing is my excuse. What's yours?
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I just like so many different kinds of music that I like experimenting. I don't want to keep making the same record over and over and over. I'm an 'evolve or die' kind of a musician. I think it's cool to try new things.
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No matter how beautiful, no matter how cool your interface, it would be better if there were less of it.
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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.
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You can get spiritual things out of books and stories and they have nothing to do with religion.
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Just how do I design if not with prototyping? An excellent question. The short answer is 'on paper.'
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If you are not going to produce albums then you are not going to produce new fans. It's impossible. I'm a huge believer in putting music out as quickly as early as possible, touring hard and then working on putting the next one out. I don't need to break. I just need to put a record out.
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Past dreams of bliss our lives contain, And slight the chords that still retain A heart estranged to joys again, To scenes by memory's silver chain Close-linked, and ever yet apart, That like the vine, whose tendrils young Around some fostering branch have clung, Grown with its growth, as tho' it sprung From one united heart.
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I just try and learn to be a good husband and be a good father before I am a good rock star. That means saying no to certain things that go with the business.
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We don't fight about music. We don't fight about artistic direction. The things like that we could fight about, we really don't. We are pretty lucky for that.
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Usability methods are like sandpapering a chair. If you are making a chair, the sandpaper can make it smoother. But no amount of sandpaper will turn a chair into a table.
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Keep it simple: In general, interfaces should use simple geometric forms, minimal contours, and a restricted color palette comprised primarily of less-saturated or neutral colors balanced with a few high contrast accent colors that emphasize important information. Typography should not vary widely in an interface.
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Form follows function straight to hell.
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One of the most heinous, insidious lies is the notion that you have to be an asshole to be a successful business person.
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Computers no longer interface with humans--they interact, and the interaction will become steadily deeper, more subtle, and more crucial to our collective sanity and ultimate survival.
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Men do not greet one another like this ... except perhaps at rugby club dinners.
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It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets.
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A powerful tool in the early stages of developing scenarios is to pretend the interface is magic. If your persona has goals and the product has magical powers to meet them, how simple could the interaction be? This kind of thinking is useful to help designers look outside the box.
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