User Experience Quotes

Here's a list of quotes which inspires me in one way or another. I hope to compile a longer list in the near future but at the mean time, chew on these:

"For some (graphic) designers, it has become an unquestioned part of the working process that yields precision, order and clarity. For others, it is symbolic of Old Guard aesthetic oppression, a stifling cage that hinders the search for expression."
—Timothy Samara, 2005

"When presenting data use lots of relevant quotes from real people."
—Peter Van Dijck, 2003

"Keep the client focused on two aspects of the design: what they want to accomplish, and who they are trying to accomplish this for. Business goals and user goals."
—Peter Van Dijck, 2003

“[Users] make their credibility-based decisions about the people or organization behind the site based upon the site's overall visual appeal.”
—Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, 2002

“[Users] said they were more likely to believe Web sites that looked professionally designed.”
—Stanford Web Credibility Study, 2002

“A picture is worth a thousand words. An interface is worth a thousand pictures.”
—Ben Shneiderman, 2003

“Design is so critical it should be on the agenda of every meeting in every single department.”
—Tom Peters, 2003

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”
—Steve Jobs, 2003

“Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability — they should go hand in hand.”
—Donald Norman, 2003

“The perfection of art is to conceal art.”
—Quintilian, 95

“We require from buildings two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it.”
—John Ruskin, 1880

“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose”
—Charles Eames

“To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master”
—Milton Glaser

“Design is directed toward human beings. To design is to solve human problems by identifying them and executing the best solution.”
—Ivan Chermayeff

“Design is the art of gradually applying constraints until only one solution remains.”
—Unknown

“The greatest challenge to any thinker is stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.”
—Bertrand Russell

“Interactive design [is] a seamless blend of graphic arts, technology, and psychology.”
—Brad Wieners, 2002

“[Leonardo Da Vinci] combined art and science and aesthetics and engineering, that kind of unity is needed once again.”
—Ben Shneiderman, 2002

“We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone.”
—Stanford Guidelines for Web Credibility, 2002

“True interactivity is not about clicking on icons or downloading files, it’s about encouraging communication.”
—Ed Scholssberg, 2002

“To dismiss front-end design as mere ‘icing’ is to jeopardize the success of any site.”
—Curt Cloninger, 2001

“Good designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.”
—Jeffery Veen, 2000

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
—Hans Hofmann

“The basis for success of [media] products, in addition to their usability and efficiency, is often the potential to arouse.”
—Reeves & Naas, 1999

“The display is the computer.”
—Jen-Hsun Huang, 2002

“Visual appearance is one of the most effective variables for quickly differentiating one application from another.”
—Bob Baxley, 2003

“If a site is perfectly usable but it lacks an elegant and appropriate design style, it will fail.”
—Curt Cloninger, 2001

“I’ve been amazed at how often those outside the discipline of design assume that what designers do is decoration. Good design is problem solving.”
—Jeffery Veen, 2000

“Like all forms of design, visual design is about problem solving, not about personal preference or unsupported opinion.”
—Bob Baxley, 2003

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.”
—Charles Mingus

“The architect should strive continually to simplify; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty.”
—Frank Lloyd Wright, 1908

“The location of visual elements in the UI has a huge impact on how the user interprets information.”
—Rick Oppedisan, 2002

“The design of good houses requires an understanding of both the construction materials and the behavior of real humans.”
—Peter Morville, 2002

“The fusion of art and technology that we call interface design.”
—Steven Johnson, 1997

“...that strange new zone between medium and message. That zone we call the interface.”
—Steven Johnson, 1997

“Form follows function-that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
—Frank Lloyd Wright

“The details are not the details. They make the design.”
—Charles Eames

“Questions about whether design is necessary or affordable are quite beside the point: design is inevitable. The alternative to good design is bad design, not no design at all.”
—Douglas Martin, 1989

“Science arose from poetry… when times change the two can meet again on a higher level as friends.”
—Johann Goethe

“…effective communication is a key factor in the success of your product.”
—Jesse James Garrett, 2002

“Problems with visual design can turn users off so quickly that they never discover all the smart choices you made with navigation or interaction design.”
—Jesse James Garrett, 2002

“Good design is the most important way to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.”
—Samsung CEO Yun Jong Yong, 2004

“Design is the easiest way to reenergize a product.”
—Fast Company, 2005

“Where you innovate, how you innovate, and what you innovate are design problems.”
—Tim Brown, 2005

“Your products run for election every day and good design is critical to winning the campaign.”
—Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley, 2005

“Design's fundamental role is problem solver”
—Fast Company, 2005

“When people talk about innovation in this decade, they really mean design”
—Bruce Nussbaum, 2005

“Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.”
—Steve Jobs, 2005

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
—Steve Jobs, 2005

“You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.”
—Steve Jobs, 2005

“I prefer design by experts - by people who know what they are doing”
—Don Norman, 2005

“The commonality between science and art is in trying to see profoundly - to develop strategies of seeing and showing.”
—Edward Tufte, 2005

“Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated.”
—Paul Rand, 1997

“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.”
—Paul Rand, 1997

“Simple design, intense content.”
—Edward Tufte, 2004

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
—Antoine De Saint-Exupery

“Truly elegant design incorporates top-notch functionality into a simple, uncluttered form.”
—David Lewis, 2006

“When you take technology and mix it with art, you always come up with something innovative.”
—Robert Rodriguez, 2006

“An enterprise's most vital assets lie in its design and other creative capabilities.”
—Samsung chairman Kun-Hee Lee, 2006

“Business success is always defined by the quality of the overall customer experience.”
—Forrester Research, 2001

“Websites that are hard to use frustrate customers, forfeit revenue and erode brands.”
—Forrester Research, 1998

“It's all about one thing: creative problem-solving to get the story out.”
—Robert Greenberg, R/GA, 2006

“The challenge is about taking things that are infinitely complex and making them simpler and more understandable.”
—Robert Greenberg, R/GA, 2006

“The product is the brand. You build brand in our industry through the product and the experience.”
—Jim Wicks, Motorola, 2006

“Design is always about synthesis -synthesis of market needs, technology trends, and business needs.”
—Jim Wicks, Motorola, 2006

“It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them.”
—Steve Jobs, 1998

Leave a comment if you happen to know any quotes that are not listed here...thanks!