Living with complexity Quotes - QuotesSweet | quotesweet.com

Book: Living with Complexity
Quotes of Book: Living with Complexity

Donald A. Norman _ Living with Complexity
Complexity can be tamed, but it requires considerable effort to do it well. Decreasing the number of buttons and displays is not the solution. The solution is to understand the total system, to design it in a way that allows all the pieces fit nicely together, so that initial learning as well as usage are both optimal. Years ago, Larry Tesler, then a vice president of Apple, argued that the total complexity of a system is a constant: as you make the person's interaction simpler, the hidden complexity behind the scenes increases. Make one part of the system simpler, said Tesler, and the rest of the system gets more complex. This principle is known today as "Tesler's law of the conservation of complexity." Tesler described it as a tradeoff: making things easier for the user means making it more difficult for the designer or engineer.
book-quote
Donald A. Norman _ Living with Complexity
Why do people buy an expensive, complicated toaster when a simpler, less-expensive toaster would work just as well? Why all the buttons and controls on steering wheels and rearview mirrors? Because these are the features that people believe they want. They make a difference at the time of sale, which is when such features matter most. Why do we deliberately build things that confuse the people who use them? Answer: because the people want the features. Because the so-called demand for simplicity is a myth whose time has passed, if it ever existed.
book-quote
Donald A. Norman _ Living with Complexity
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."
book-quote
Donald A. Norman _ Living with Complexity
Forget the complaints against complexity; instead, complain about confusion.
book-quote
Donald A. Norman _ Living with Complexity
Simplification is as much in the mind as it is in the device.
book-quote
Donald A. Norman _ Living with Complexity
We must design for the way people behave,not for how we would wish them to behave.
book-quote inspirational human-computer-interaction interaction-design