I am only a footnote, but proud of the footnote I have become. My subsequent work on eliciting principles and developing the theory of interface design, so that many people will be able to do what I did is probably also footnote-worthy. In looking back at this turn-of-the-century period, the rise of a worldwide network will be seen as the most significant part of the computer revolution.

A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.

I am confident that we can do better than GUIs because the basic problem with them (and with the Linux and Unix interfaces) is that they ask a human being to do things that we know experimentally humans cannot do well. The question I asked myself is, given everything we know about how the human mind works, could we design a computer and computer software so that we can work with the least confusion and greatest efficiency?

As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.

Once the product's task is known, design the interface first; then implement to the interface design.

A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.

When you have to choose among methods, your locus of attention is drawn from the task and temporarily becomes the decision itself.