Quotessence
Home / Authors / Donald A. Norman Books
Donald A. Norman

Donald A. Norman Books

Author

Related Quotes

“Serious accidents are frequently blamed on "human error." Yet careful analysis of such situations shows that the design or installation of the equipment has contributed significantly to the problems. The design team or installers did not pay sufficient attention to the needs of those who would be using the equipment, so confusion or error was almost unavoidable.”

NeedsHumansShowsProblemWould BePayAttentionSituationTeamDesignSeriousErrorsCarefulAccidentsConfusionAnalysisSufficientEquipmentInstallationHuman Error
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“When I use a direct manipulation system whether for text editing, drawing pictures, or creating and playing games I do think of myself not as using a computer but as doing the particular task. The computer is, in effect, invisible. The point cannot be overstressed: make the computer system invisible.”

ThinkingUseGamesEffectsParticularComputerCreatingTasksDirectDrawingInvisibleManipulationEditingPlaying GamesComputer SystemsDrawing Pictures
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“Everything has a personality: everything sends an emotional signal. Even where this was not the intention of the designer, the people who view the website infer personalities and experience emotions. Bad websites have horrible personalities and instill horrid emotional states in their users, usually unwittingly. We need to design things-products, websites, services-to convey whatever personality and emotions are desired.”

PeopleNeedsStatesViewsEmotionDesignEmotionalProductsPersonalityIntentionHorribleDesignerUsersSignalsWebsiteInstill
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“Too many companies believe that all they must do is provide a 'neat' technology or some 'cool' product or, sometimes, just good, solid engineering. Nope. All of those are desirable (and solid engineering is a must), but there is much more to a successful product than that: understanding how the product is to be used, design, engineering, positioning, marketing, branding-all matter. It requires designing the Total User Experience.”

BelieveSometimesMatterUsedUnderstandingCompanyTechnologySuccessfulDesignProductsMarketingUsersEngineeringBrandingDesirableNeatUser Experience
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“No product is an island. A product is more than the product. It is a cohesive, integrated set of experiences. Think through all of the stages of a product or service - from initial intentions through final reflections, from first usage to help, service, and maintenance. Make them all work together seamlessly. That's systems thinking.”

ThinkingFirstsHelpingTogetherStageProductsReflectionIntentionFinalsIslandsWorking TogetherInitialsIntegratedMaintenanceUsageSystems Thinking
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“If you think of the product as a service, then the separate parts make no sense - the point of a product is to offer great experiences to its owner, which means that it offers a service. And that experience, that service, comprises the totality of its parts: The whole is indeed made up of all of the parts. The real value of a product consists of far more than the product's components.”

IfsThinkingMeanMadeRealWholeValuesProductsOffersOwnersComponentsTotalityGreat ExperiencesReal Value
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“I think a successful company is one where everybody owns the same mission. Out of necessity, we divide ourselves up into discipline groups. But the goal when you are actually doing the work is to somehow forget what discipline group you are in and come together. So in that sense, nobody should own user experience; everybody should own it.”

ThinkingShouldTogetherGoalForgetCompanySuccessfulGroupsDisciplineMissionsDividesUsersUser ExperienceSuccessful Company
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“User experience is really the whole totality. Opening the package good example. It's the total experience that matters. And that starts from when you first hear about a product experience is more based upon memory than reality. If your memory of the product is wonderful, you will excuse all sorts of incidental things.”

IfsFirstsMatterWholeRealityMemoriesWonderfulExampleProductsExcuseOpeningUsersPackagesOur MemoriesTotalityGood ExamplesUser Experience
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image

“We delude ourselves if we believe that skilled behavior is easy, that it can come about without effort. We forget the years of tuning, of learning and practice it takes to be skilled at even the most fundamental of human activities: eating, walking, talking, reading, and writing. It is tempting to want instant gratification - immediate expert performance and experiential pleasure - but the truth is that this primarily occurs only after considerable amounts of accretion and tuning.”

IfsWantWritingYearsBelieveHumansReadingEasyForgetPleasureEffortTalkingPracticeAmountWalkingTruth IsActivityBehaviorEatingPerformancesFundamentalsInstantExpertsGratificationTemptingHuman ActivityReading And WritingTuningInstant Gratification
Author:Donald A. Norman
Create image