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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 using the device has a good conceptual model of how it operates.

Donald A. Norman

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Donald A. Norman
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More quotes by Donald A. Norman

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I believe that the Apple Shuffle is an excellent compromise among the conflicting requirements of simplicity, elegance, size, battery life, and function
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The current paradigm is so thoroughly established that the only way to change is to start over again.
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It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people's lives.
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Innocence lost is not easily regained. The designer simply cannot predict the problems people will have, the misinterpretations that will arise, and the errors that will get made.
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Readers always seem to think that the author has some control over the design of their books.
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It is the duty of machines and those who design them to understand people. It is not our duty to understand the arbitrary, meaningless dictates of machines.
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Isn't one of your first exercises in learning how to communicate to write a description of how to tie your shoelaces? The point being that it's basically impossible to use text to show that
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AS for all those mistakes I make - they are on purpose - to teach you how to deal with them
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Simplification is as much in the mind as it is in the device.
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The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.
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If you're more susceptible to interruption, you do more out of the box thinking.
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Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability - they should go hand in hand.
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In my opinion, no single design is apt to be optimal for everyone.
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Am I an Apple bigot? No. I can critique their products and their customer service philosophy. But overall, they do better than any other player.
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Forget the complaints against complexity instead, complain about confusion.
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So what does a good teacher do? Create tension - but just the right amount.
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I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doing
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Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principals [of design] come from understanding of people. They remain true forever.
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I think there is a tendency in science to measure what is measurable and to decide that what you cannot measure must be uninteresting.
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Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right.
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