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

Popularity: 11% [?]

Please never say enterprise software again. I don’t really like enterprise software. Pretend you’re making consumer software. [...] Make software for people in big companies.

Jonathan Grubb (at CHI 2007)

So true. Engineers and techies who build the underlying system might need to think of the whole enterprise—in terms of performance, capacity, reliability—but when it comes to designing the functionality and interface, the people who will use it should be the focus.

Ironically, on the same day I thought about blogging this quote, I did observe a woman on my bus reading a memo entitled User Guide for Simplified Sign-on for XYZ Mainframe (or something to that effect). The memo was about six pages long, crammed with fairly dodgy looking annotated screenshots and quite a lot of instructions, with many bolded sentences.

I thought to myself, if it’s the ’simplified’ version then why does it need such lengthy explanation? By the look of that memo I would say it was far from simplified and far from anything I would want to roll out across a major financial institution (and yes, ‘XYZ’ is definitely a pseudonym in this case).

Popularity: 23% [?]

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg, in The New York Times

Popularity: 22% [?]

As per a user centred design ethic, we now care how users feel. Bugger that, what about how the machine feels?

This is how my wife recently described her iPod Shuffle (cigarette lighter not matchbox) after I suggested we upgrade its firmware:

“It’s temperamental, if you play it too much it gets upset.”

“It’s in a good place right now, where it’s happy. Just leave it alone.”

Have you considered the emotional state of the system you’re designing?

Popularity: 31% [?]

You’re given one mouth and two ears for a reason; use them proportionately.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Surely this is the bestest title for a paper:

"What a f-ing system! Send ’em all to the same place and then expect us to stop ’em hitting": Making Technology Work in Air Traffic Control

Sounds like one of those juicy quotes you get from staff interviews :)

Popularity: 42% [?]

I saw this poem during a recent contextual study:

Two worn little shoes
With a hole in the toe
And why have I saved them?
Well, all mothers will know

There’s nothing so sweet
As a baby’s worn shoe
And the patter of little steps
Following you

Popularity: 12% [?]

Do you find you often can’t decipher song lyrics? Me too. Currently I’m baffled by Black Fingernails Red Wine by Eskimo Joe in which, as far as I can tell, the singer states “I don’t understand the point of fingers” (allegedly the correct lyrics are “I don’t understand the point, I’ve been good” but I’m sure it’s a conspiracy).

Some classic examples that have confused me in the past, are:

Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix: “excuse me while I kiss this guy” instead of “excuse me while I kiss the sky”.

Stand By My Woman by Lenny Kravitz: “I can’t go on without a ho” instead of “I can’t go on without her”.

Going Gets Tough by Billy Ocean: “Well go and get stuffed” instead of “When the going gets tough”.

Money For Nothin’ by Dire Straits “Money for nothing and chips for free” instead of “money for nothing and chicks for free” (hey, I was a school boy and going to Red Lea after school for hot chips was much more important than any girl!)

One more I thought for sure I was misunderstanding was What You Waitin For by Gwen Stefani, which I heard as “take a chance you stupid hoe”. But when I checked, that is the actual lyric! Guess that makes sense, considering the artist.

ps: yes I got my hearing tested last week, it’s almost perfect! :)

Popularity: 7% [?]

If I agree with you, will you shut-up?

Bumper sticker

Popularity: 11% [?]

You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

Admiral Jim Stockdale

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