13 Quotes by Don Norman

The designer has an obligation to provide an appropriate conceptual model for the way that the device works. It doesn't have to completely accurate but it has to be sufficiently accurate that it will help in both the learning of the operation and also dealing with novel situations.

Don’t criticize unless you can do better. Try to understand how the faulty design might have occurred: try to determine how it could have been done otherwise.

The vicious cycle starts: if you fail at something, you think it is your fault. Therefore you think you can’t do that task. As a result, next time you have to do the task, you believe you can’t, so you don’t even try. The result is that you can’t, just as you thought. You’re trapped in a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We still suffer from the mind-set of the Chicago World’s Fair: “Science Finds, Industry Applies, Man Conforms.” We.