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.
Donald A. NormanToo many companies believe that all they must do is provide a 'neat' technology or some 'cool' product or, sometimes, just good, solid engineering. Nope. All of those are desirable (and solid engineering is a must), but there is much more to a successful product than that: understanding how the product is to be used, design, engineering, positioning, marketing, branding-all matter. It requires designing the Total User Experience.
Donald A. NormanWhen a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manualโeven a one-word manualโthen it is a failure, poorly designed.
Donald A. NormanWhen you have trouble with thingsโwhether it's figuring out whether to push or pull a door or the arbitrary vagaries of the modern computer and electronics industriesโit's not your fault. Don't blame yourself: blame the designer.
Donald A. NormanWe delude ourselves if we believe that skilled behavior is easy, that it can come about without effort. We forget the years of tuning, of learning and practice it takes to be skilled at even the most fundamental of human activities: eating, walking, talking, reading, and writing. It is tempting to want instant gratification - immediate expert performance and experiential pleasure - but the truth is that this primarily occurs only after considerable amounts of accretion and tuning.
Donald A. Norman