Pat’s Point of View

A recent discussion at work revealed some cracking quotes that are worthy of sharing. The ones I like best are those that were originally coined in an entirely other context, but ring true when applied to something like website usability. And what the heck, having all these here will probably help with SEO :)

Supposing is good, but finding out is better.

- Mark Twain, author

Pay attention to what users do, not what they say.

- Jakob Nielsen, usability guru

Just because nobody complains doesn’t mean all parachutes are perfect.

- Benny Hill, comedian

The most common user action on a Web site is to flee.

- Edward Tufte, information design guru

We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are.

- The Talmud

Make it idiot-proof and someone will just make a better idiot.

- Unknown

Most software needs to be spanked.

- Alan Cooper, persona guru

Perhaps something a bit longer?

Consumers cannot readily tell us what they are thinking. It is assumed knowledge. Which is to say, consumers know things about the world they do not know they know. There is assumed knowledge on the corporate side as well. The corporation and its engineers hold certain assumptions so deeply they can no longer see them.

– Grant McCracken, business anthropologist

Your customers are not you. They don’t look like you, they don’t think like you, they don’t do the things that you do, they don’t have your expectations or assumptions. If they did, they wouldn’t be your customers; they’d be your competitors.

- Mike Kuniavsky, user experience guru

Update: couldn’t resist stealing some from Chris‘ private stash (I wonder what else is in there?):

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

- Douglas Adams, author

This is the rock-solid principle on which the whole of [IBM's] Galaxy-wide success is founded…their fundamental design flaws are completely hidden by their superficial design flaws.

- Ted Nelson, hypertext pioneer

The essential division in the (computer) industry between hardware and software represents the organization of computing from the system designer’s viewpoint, not the user’s. In successful mature technologies it’s not possible to isolate the form and function. The logical design and the mechanical design of a pen or a piano bind their mechanism with their user interface so closely that it’s possible to use them without thinking of them as technology, or even thinking of them at all. Invisibility is the missing goal in computing.

- Neil Gershenfeld, technologist, physicist, author

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.

- Mitch Ratliffe, technology journalist

Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don’t need to be done.

- Andy Rooney, actor

Computers should work the way beginners expect them to, and one day they will.

- Ted Nelson, hypertext pioneer

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