A big ethical question is what happens after people stop using the device. Does it degrade the environment? Could it have been designed so it would actually be good for the environment?

Rule of thumb: if you think something is clever and sophisticated beware-it is probably self-indulgence.

What makes something simple or complex? It's not the number of dials or controls or how many features it has: It is whether the person using the device has a good conceptual model of how it operates.

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

Attractive things work better.

We 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.

In the university, professors make up artificial problems. In the real world, the problems do not come in nice, neat packages. They have to be discovered.