Top 120 Donald A. Norman Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability – they should go hand in hand.”

— Donald A. Norman

2. “It is not enough that we build products that function, that are understandable and usable, we also need to build products that bring joy and excitement, pleasure and fun, and, yes, beauty to people’s lives.”

— Donald A. Norman

3. “Good design is also an act of communication between the designer and the user, except that all the communication has to come about by the appearance of the device itself. The device must explain itself.”

— Donald A. Norman

4. “A brilliant solution to the wrong problem can be worse than no solution at all: solve the correct problem.”

— Donald A. Norman

5. “User-centered design means working with your users all throughout the project.”

— Donald A. Norman

6. “Attractive things work better.”

— Donald A. Norman

7. “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.”

— Donald A. Norman

8. “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. Norman

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

— Donald A. Norman

10. “To me, error analysis is the sweet spot for improvement.”

— Donald A. Norman

11. “Knowing how people will use something is essential.”

— Donald A. Norman

12. “Market segmentation s a natural result of the vast differences among people.”

— Donald A. Norman

13. “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.”

— Donald A. Norman

14. “The best kind of design isn’t necessarily an object, a space, or a structure: it’s a process- dynamic and adaptable.”

— Donald A. Norman

15. “Having the best product means nothing if the people won’t buy it.”

— Donald A. Norman

16. “We are victims of our own success. We have let technology lead the way, pushing ever faster to newer, faster, and more powerful systems, with nary a moment to rest, contemplate, and to reflect upon why, how, and for whom all this energy has been expended.”

— Donald A. Norman

17. “The design of everyday things is in great danger of becoming the design of superfluous, overloaded, unnecessary things.”

— Donald A. Norman

18. “Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible, serving us without drawing attention to itself. Bad design, on the other hand, screams out its inadequacies, making itself very noticeable.”

— Donald A. Norman

19. “Academics get paid for being clever, not for being right.”

— Donald A. Norman

20. “When you have trouble with things – whether it’s figuring out whether to push or pull a door or the arbitrary vagaries of the modern computer and electronics industries – it’s not your fault. Don’t blame yourself: blame the designer.”

— Donald A. Norman

21. “A challenge to the designers of the world: Make signs unnecessary.”

— Donald A. Norman

22. “Simplification is as much in the mind as it is in the device.”

— Donald A. Norman

23. “We expert teachers know that motivation and emotional impact are what matter.”

— Donald A. Norman

24. “Root cause analysis is the name of the game: investigate the accident until the single, underlying cause is found. What this ought to mean is that when people have indeed made erroneous decisions or actions, we should determine what caused them to err. This is what root cause analysis ought to be about. Alas, all too often it stops once a person is found to have acted inappropriately.”

— Donald A. Norman

25. “Go to the bookstore and look at how many bookshelves are filled with books trying to explain how to work the devices. We don’t see shelves of books on how to use television sets, telephones, refrigerators or washing machines. Why should we for computer-based applications?”

— Donald A. Norman

26. “People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms.”

— Donald A. Norman

27. “Question everything. I am particularly fond of “stupid” questions. A stupid question asks about things so fundamental that everyone assumes the answer is obvious.”

— Donald A. Norman

28. “We are creative and imaginative, not mechanical and precise. Machines require precision and accuracy; people don’t. And we are particularly bad at providing precise and accurate inputs. So.”

— Donald A. Norman

29. “And to get real work experience, you need a job, and most jobs will require you to have had either real work experience or a graduate degree.”

— Donald A. Norman

30. “Attractive things work better When you wash and wax a car, it drives better, doesn’t it? Or at least feels like it does.”

— Donald A. Norman

31. “Change the attitude toward errors. Think of an object’s user as attempting to do a task, getting there by imperfect approximations. Don’t think of the user as making errors; think of the actions as approximations of what is desired.”

— Donald A. Norman

32. “As the technology matures, it becomes less and less relevant. The technology is taken for granted. Now, new customers enter the marketplace, customers who are not captivated by technology, but who instead want reliability, convenience, no fuss or bother, and low cost.”

— Donald A. Norman

33. “How do you discover a need that nobody yet knows about? This is where the product breakthroughs come through.”

— Donald A. Norman

34. “I prefer design by experts – by people who know what they are doing.”

— Donald A. Norman

35. “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.”

— Donald A. Norman

36. “Design is concerned with how things work, how they are controlled, and the nature of the interaction between people and technology.”

— Donald A. Norman

37. “Behavioral design is all about feeling in control. Includes: usability, understanding, but also the feel.”

— Donald A. Norman

38. “Technology does not make us smarter. People do not make technology smart. It is the combination of the two, the person plus the artifact, that is smart. Together, with our tools, we are a powerful combination. On the other hand, if we are suddenly without these external devices, then we don’t do very well. In many ways, we do become less smart.”

— Donald A. Norman

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

— Donald A. Norman

40. “Simplicity design axiom: The complexity of the information appliance is that of the task, not the tool. The technology is invisible.”

— Donald A. Norman

41. “So what does a good teacher do? Create tension – but just the right amount.”

— Donald A. Norman

42. “Modern technology can be complex, but complexity by itself is neither good nor bad: it is confusion that is bad. Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion.”

— Donald A. Norman

43. “If people keep buying poorly designed products, manufacturers and designers will think they are doing the right thing and continue as usual.”

— Donald A. Norman

44. “Creeping featurism is a disease, fatal if not treated promptly. There are some cures, but, as usual, the best approach is to practice preventative medicine.”

— Donald A. Norman

45. “If you think the products don’t match what you want from a product, don’t buy it.”

— Donald A. Norman

46. “A good designer will actually design the company.”

— Donald A. Norman

47. “Only the most sophisticated of beings can lie and cheat, and get away with it.”

— Donald A. Norman

48. “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.”

— Donald A. Norman

49. “Why do we need to know about the human mind? Because things are designed to be used by people, and without a deep understanding of people, the designs are apt to be faulty, difficult to use, difficult to understand.”

— Donald A. Norman

50. “The designer has an obligation to provide an appropriate conceptual model for the way that the device works. It doesn’t have to completely accurate but it has to be sufficiently accurate that it will help in both the learning of the operation and also dealing with novel situations.”

— Donald A. Norman