Knowing how people will use something is essential

The hardest part of design ... is keeping features out.

Isn't one of your first exercises in learning how to communicate to write a description of how to tie your shoelaces? The point being that it's basically impossible to use text to show that

Technology may change rapidly, but people change slowly. The principals [of design] come from understanding of people. They remain true forever.

When a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual—even a one-word manual—then it is a failure, poorly designed.

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

I believe that robots should only have faces if they truly need them

Design is really an act of communication, which means having a deep understanding of the person with whom the designer is communicating.

Innocence lost is not easily regained. The designer simply cannot predict the problems people will have, the misinterpretations that will arise, and the errors that will get made.

Complexity is acceptable as long as it is intelligible and necessary. We want to avoid needless complications.

The major problems facing the development of products that are safer, less prone to error, and easier to use and understand are not technological: they are social and organizational.

The great idea is the one that is either saleable or is worthy of imitation.

Why do people assume? If I hate you, I'll tell you. In this case, it's not hate. It's hurt. I'll lick my wounds, which only oozed because I gave a damn, and be over it before the sun rises.

Hatred is the emotional price leaders must pay for getting love and honour.

It is said a virtuous woman is worth more than rubies. But I believe many men discover the hard way that virtue, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.

One advantage of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottage princes' palaces.

I may be a princess, but I'm definitely not a drama queen.

I have left my book, I have left my room, For I heard you singing Through the gloom.

When things are taking their ordinary course, it is hard to remember what matters.

Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together.