122 Quotes by Donald A. Norman

I’m not a fan of technology. I’m a fan of pedagogy, of understanding how people learn and the most effective learning methods. But technology enables some exciting changes.

Attractive things work better When you wash and wax a car, it drives better, doesn’t it? Or at least feels like it does.

Root cause analysis is the name of the game: investigate the accident until the single, underlying cause is found. What this ought to mean is that when people have indeed made erroneous decisions or actions, we should determine what caused them to err. This is what root cause analysis ought to be about. Alas, all too often it stops once a person is found to have acted inappropriately.

Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.

It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people’s lives.

Some things can only be solved by massive cultural changes, which probably means they will never be solved.

One way of overcoming the fear of the new is to make it look like the old.

To me, error analysis is the sweet spot for improvement.

Also note that invariably when we design something that can be used by those with disabilities, we often make it better for everyone.