Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design Quotes

“Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.”—William Zinsser, On Writing Well”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“I see this again and again: A small group of customers makes noisy, persistent demands for new features that are too complicated for typical users. You’ll find it hard to convince your stakeholders (who are insiders and therefore experts) that the customers who are also experts (just like them) are not the ones you should listen to.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“The vast majority of people are mainstreamers. They don’t use technology for its own sake; they use it to get a job done.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“It’s been pointed out that products that start out simple often end up getting so complex they cease to be useful. But if you set extreme targets, over time your product gets better (or at least achieves the goals that really matter).”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“To be simple, you have to aim for something tougher than the regular goals for usability.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context—a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“A story is a great way to describe your vision. Unlike a list of requirements, it helps the reader understand what’s important and why.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“The thing to do, then, is to describe what the user does from the beginning to the end of their experience, remembering that it’s the user’s actions you’re most interested in, not the thing you’re designing.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Repeatedly asking “so what” eventually throws up an emotional need, a rational need, and a solution. It also helps you arrive at a deeper understanding of the design problem you want to solve. (Of course, you’ll need to check your thinking by talking to real users).”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Begin with that need—the user’s need to feel in control of some part of his life—then try to dig deeper by asking, “So what?”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Your design shouldn’t interfere with this sense of control. It should extend it. Simple experiences make users confident that they’re making good choices. Simple experiences reassure users that the product will respond in a predictable way. Secondly, they want to feel in control of their lives.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Experts want to control and customize the technology. You’ll need to take the mainstreamers’ view of “control:” to be in control of the outcomes. They don’t want to worry about the software or technology, and they don’t want it to tell them what to do. Mainstreamers want control that is easy, reliable, and quick.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Fortunately, when it comes to designing for simplicity, the key emotional need is for users to feel that they’re in control.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Simple user experiences need to work for a novice, or a mainstreamer who’s under pressure.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Mainstreamers are interested in getting the job done now; experts are interested in customizing their settings first. • Mainstreamers value ease of control; experts value precision of control. • Mainstreamers want reliable results; experts want perfect results. • Mainstreamers are afraid of breaking something; experts want to take things apart to see how they work. • Mainstreamers want a good match; experts want an exact match. • Mainstreamers want examples and stories; experts want principles.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“If you want to make something simple, design for the multitude.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“The vast majority of people are mainstreamers. They don’t use technology for its own sake; they use it to get a job done. They tend to learn a few key features and never add to their repertoire. These are the people who say, “I just want my mobile phone to work.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“At home, at work, and outdoors, you must design for constant interruptions.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“You can’t control the environments where people use your software. You have to design it to fit. The best place to watch users is in their natural environment.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Visiting users in their workplaces was vital—if we’d simply imagined the manager at his desk we would have missed the crucial aspects. Watching people in the real world is quick and you rarely need to pay anyone to do it. Even with minimal planning you can learn a lot. If you can’t get permission to do it, then talk to some users about where they are and what’s happening when they use your software.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“The better and longer way is to describe the experience I want the users to have. That means describing the users’ world and how my design fits in.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“The quick and dirty way is to write down a one-line description, in the simplest terms possible, of what I’m creating, along with a few guidelines I want to stick to.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Simplicity isn’t something you can stick on top of a user interface.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Wizards promise to make things simple by breaking them down into steps. The problem is they take control away from the user. Because of this, wizards feel constricting. It may be possible to herd users through a brief wizard, but the longer it goes on, the worse it feels.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“The character and personality should come from the medium you’re using, the brand you’re representing, and the task that users are undertaking.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Simplicity does not mean want or poverty. It does not mean the absence of any decor, or absolute nudity. It only means that the decor should belong intimately to the design proper, and that anything foreign to it should be taken away. —Paul Jacques Grillo (Form, Function and Design)”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Increasing complexity is unsustainable”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“People love simple, dependable, adaptable products.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design

“Continually adding features to software turns out to be equally unsustainable.”
― Giles Colborne, Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design