101 Things I Learned in Product Design School Quotes

“Seek to discover new questions. Your goal shouldn’t be to build a perfect version of an idea, but to place yourself in a situation that prompts you to ask questions you otherwise would not have thought of.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“A failed prototype can still succeed: by revealing a problem, it shows you what does not work and suggests where you should go next.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Sometimes, something that’s completely resolved isn’t as interesting. . . . A little bit of dissonance, at least a little bit, is really required to have an interesting composition that will hold our interest over a long period of time.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“The field of biomimicry seeks to understand nature’s complexity and replicate it in designed objects.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Make it look like what it does. A well-designed product communicates how it is to be engaged through affordances—cues as to how to hold, use, or otherwise interact with it.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“A $25 teakettle needs to boil water, whistle, be dependable, and look appealing. A $900 kettle mostly needs to be beautiful.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“It’s better to violate a boundary than to leave a gap.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“An observation is the perception of an objective fact or condition. An awareness is an observation that continues to reside in the mind, carrying with it an expectation of significance. An insight is the recognition of the deep significance of something one already knew. An insight is revelatory and holistic; it organizes complex relationships or ambiguous phenomena in a simple, clarifying way.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Each week, write a design statement—a paragraph explaining your understanding of the users, the problem, and your approach.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Being creative isn’t just coming up with new ideas; perhaps more often it’s connecting ideas.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“It is common and even typical for an inexperienced designer to come up with a solution quickly, stick to it, and defend it against criticism by invoking a right to be creative and self-expressive. But this actually indicates an avoidance of creativity and self-expression. To be creative is not to execute a preconceived idea; it is to continually learn, discover, and try out new possibilities.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Designer Raymond Loewy advocated for the MAYA principle: products that are Most Advanced Yet Acceptable balance the comfort of the familiar with the stimulation of the unfamiliar, encouraging consumers to accept a new object into their familiar world.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Scientific studies show that an animal typically reacts with fear when encountering a new stimulus.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Begin with familiar objects. Trying to attract people to something entirely new is risky.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Originality doesn’t begin with originality, but with developing basic competencies.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“People don’t need a vase; they need to display and enjoy flowers. They don’t need a teacup; they need to consume”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“Design requires deep reflection, but one cannot design in a purely cognitive (thinking) mode. Active doing helps us figure out what to think about. Otherwise, we think only about the things we already know.”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School

“It’s very easy to be different, but very difficult to be better.” —JONATHAN IVE”
― Sung Jang, 101 Things I Learned® in Product Design School