highlights & comments

• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  People learn by doing. Telling people what to do is not nearly as effective as coaching them as they do it.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  to start the engine of a modern car you do just two things, turn a key and touch the starter. Everything else is automatic. The process used to be more complicated. It required not only a good memory, a strong man, an angelic temper, and a blind hope, but also a certain amount of practice of magic, so that a man about to turn the crank of a Model T might be seen to spit on the ground and whisper a spell. (Steinbeck 1952)

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Even the most well-intentioned salespeople can fall into the trap of falling in love with the features and capabilities of the most advanced products rather than focusing on the needs of the customer in front of them.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the designer is primarily concerned with perceived affordances; the perception is critical. As a result, when designers correctly observed that some people were having difficulty using a product because they failed to notice the affordance, they would add visible signs of its existence. But, lacking the appropriate vocabulary to describe what they had done, they would say that they had "put an affordance on a product" when in fact they were making visible the presence of an already existing affordance. What they really were doing was adding a signifier. The designers had no choice; no other word existed to describe what they had done (the word "signifier" had not yet been introduced), so with time, the term "affordance" in design has come to mean something perceptible.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  than it would have been had there been no automation at all.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The human brain and capabilities of infants change extremely slowly generation after generation. Technology, society, and culture change far more rapidly-technology changing the fastest, culture the slowest.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Even simple tools take time to master: the lowly screwdriver, wrench, hammer, potato peeler, or the pencil are all as simple as can be imagined, but all take practice before they are mastered. Taming complexity is a partnership between those who design and those who use.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  people often have trouble remembering precisely the point at which the task should be resumed. Checklists solve this problem by containing an explicit list of what has been done, what remains to be done.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The secret to success in taming the complexity of the VCR was not through clever, sophisticated user interface design, but rather in recognizing that the problem had been approached from the wrong point of view. People wanted to record a show to watch at another time; they had no interest in when the show was actually broadcast. Why should they have to set the day or the time or the channel?

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  may be required to master the intricacies of a complex system.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  default action, in part because they are so automatic and invisible.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  and groups will be a major theme in the twenty-first century.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  straight can be difficult. The potential for continual interruption is huge.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  "negative signifiers."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  All congenial methods work in this way: change the task into one that fits human cognitive structures and the difficulty is reduced.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  One of my fundamental design rules is to avoid error messages. After all, the natural world manages quite well without error messages. To me, good design means never having to say "that was wrong." An error message really indicates that the system itself is confused: it doesn't know how to proceed. It is the system that needs to be scolded, not the person.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The best people to help design a product so that it does not need a manual are the technical writers who today write the manuals. They know the difficulties people face. They understand how difficult it is to explain the products. They can help design products that are easy to explain, if not self-explanatory.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the average car buyer, but they still list and rate features.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The best time to learn something is just after the person has discovered it is needed. That's when the demonstrations, tutorials, and explanations are most valuable. Try to teach too soon and the result is boredom and disinterest. But catch people just as they need the material, and they are apt to be highly motivated, attentive learners.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  All want access to our records and our lives. Our records are not secure, our means of identifying ourselves are laughably impoverished, and the distinctions between security, identification, and authentication are poorly understood, even by those implementing the systems that control our lives.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  transforms what could be an annoying wait into a personalized adventure.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  both systems may take equally long, but in the Asian method there is a continual feeling of progress.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  In Emotional Design I summarized much of the research with the statement: "Attractive things work better."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  there are few studies of the human side of service design. Most studies of services have focused on operational efficiency and, in particular, on mathematical modeling to optimize the expenses of dealing with the expected customer load. As a result, the experience side of service lacks design principles for either those being served or the staff who do the serving.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Informed, intelligent feedback is as important to the staff as it is to the customers.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  We note and remember when people in other lines start moving faster than the line we are in; we tend not to notice when our line moves quickly ahead of the others. It is this asymmetry that leads to the perception of unfair lines.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The memory of an event can be more important than the actual event.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Services don't have the glamour of products. In many cases, there is nothing to see. Service design is about procedures-which means they have to be analyzed in action. Less money is invested in the study of services than in products, even though many companies succeed or fail on the quality of their services.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the result is ideal: a fast-moving line that is visually short.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  In the rush for modernization and productivity, we have tended to overlook the value of the human experience.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  for introducing the queue, a critical element in this social transition.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Waits can be used to enhance pleasure.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  There are even times when waits are too short, when we are forced to respond before we are ready, or when we did not have enough time to finish the intervening activity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  "cognitive dissonance,"

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  expectations:

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  total experience

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Six Design Principles for Waiting Lines 1. Provide a conceptual model. 2. Make the wait seem appropriate. 3. Meet or exceed expectations. 4. Keep people occupied. 5. Be fair. 6. End strong, start strong.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  enhance these periods of uncertainty

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  to all of these questions are "we don't know; nobody knows."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  It is rumored that waiting for elevators has been made more pleasant by adding full-length mirrors near-by, so people can examine themselves while waiting.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  people with the strongest negative reactions may have stopped attending altogether.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  There are also operational and legal reasons for withholding information, including simple overload on the part of the hospital staff. But a major reason is lack of thought and appropriate design.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The backstage operations of many companies can be interesting to customers. Why not let the waiting people see what is happening? Coffeehouses do this by letting customers watch the baristas.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  It would be a mistake, however, to assume that ... innovations have an identical, homogenizing effect wherever they appear.... It remains difficult to argue that the globalization of technologies is making the world everywhere the same. The "sameness" hypothesis is only sustainable if one ignores the internal meanings that people assign to cultural innovations.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  getting bad experiences out of the way early, and building commitment.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  I have been told that "Disney employees are taught to pay special attention to customers who are most upset, both because they are unhappy, and especially, because negative emotions can spread, an observation very consistent with the vast research on emotional contagion."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Uncertainty is a prime cause of emotional irritation: a good model coupled with proper feedback removes this source of anxiety.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Waits are side effects of complex systems.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Waits are everywhere, once you start looking for them: books on a bookshelf, food in the pantry, and any items that are stockpiled. There is an entire science that deals with methods for handling queues, buffers, and inventory. The management concept known as "lean manufacturing" is specifically designed to minimize the amount of stock and inventory being held.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  System thinking:

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Different hospitals might have different laboratories, so their results would be organized differently. But the attending and resident physicians and nurses were experts at piecing together a mental model of the state of the patient from all these numbers.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  them as systems, to design the entire experience as a whole.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the moment, and indicating what future steps remain to be taken.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  from an innovative, effective sociable design for us ordinary bank customers.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  they get together to discuss the day's guests and their desires.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  system design considers the entire process as a human-centered, sociable system.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  "If you go to a good hotel and ask for something, you get it.... If you go to a great hotel, you don't even have to ask." The Ritz-Carlton Hotel chain's philosophy-they want to be great hotels.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Measurement has been a powerful tool for improving efficiency, but it is wise not to let the power of measurement override analysis of the important issues. When it comes to people, not everything we believe to be important can yet be measured. On the other hand, much that we know is unimportant is easy to measure.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  great value to others. Thus, both Otlet in the period 1910-1934

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  After all, this particular path took me almost two months, with a lot of false movements and floundering. In many cases, it would be best to follow not the path but only the summary of that journey.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Even if everyone is helpful and friendly, the sheer complexity of the operation coupled with the relatively poor interfaces among all the components can lead to frustrating experiences.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Never solve the problem the client has asked you to solve. Why? Because the client is usually responding to the symptoms.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  left by people whose interests and goals are similar to yours.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  their own belief structures while eradicating all hints of other beliefs.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  less opportunity provides more focus and depth.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  in mind that a reader might follow someone else's explicit steps.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  getting, and playing music, and also to overcome the legal issues.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Often the only difference between a service and a product is point of view. In some sense, every product provides a service to its user.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  citation analysis, at first done by hand, but today completely automated.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The distinction between front- and backstage components of a service implies a neat separation, but this is misleading. Everything has a front and back, so each of the backstage components has its own front and back. Part of the bank that is backstage to the customer is frontstage to the clerk, and what is backstage to one clerk is frontstage to yet other clerks, who in turn have their own front- and backstages.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  caused problems," "rob banks," "murder," or even "complain about police actions."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  actions." Do these systems simplify our lives, or do they complicate them?

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Group understanding is often more powerful and robust than individual understanding.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  traces of our activities can be valuable supplements to our lives.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  of other reviewers, not the average reader, user, or restaurant customer.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  for his disciples the entire scaffolding by which they were erected.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  a topic. Thus, wrote Bush: Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear,

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the machine and then the requirement to do some new action.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the route as the most popular in the entire United States.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  laziness is actually a fundamental law of physics, where it is called the "minimization of energy" principle. All physical systems prefer states that minimize energy consumption: people are no different.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the budget, with no knowledge of what future occupants might want.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  as art and place it on display in my living room.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  I have been a juror in several design contests where all the creative designs were shown in pristine environments. No wires or plugs, no people, no surrounding activity. I tried to get the rules changed so that in the future, all exhibits had to show the device in use, with all the necessary supporting structure, including power cords, speaker cables, networking connections-everything. My fellow jurors listened patiently, smiling tolerantly; no changes were made.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  de documentation in 1934 and Vannevar Bush's "memex" concept of 1945.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  was asked, but what activities immediately preceded and followed the question.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Sociable machines. Basic lessons in communication skills. Rules of machine etiquette.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  lacks understanding, that causes our frustration, and that is at fault.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  "If only we didn't have all these people around," I have heard engineers tell one another, "our machines would work just fine."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  A sociable design would support the high-level activity as well as the lower-level tasks.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Sometimes, however, design is meant to provoke. This is where it is an artistic work, intentionally created to stimulate speculation and discussion, perhaps to provoke debate. In this case, people's complaints are perhaps best ignored.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  everything is working properly and the customer acts just as intended.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  next operation, unaware that the customer is stymied, unable to comply.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  phrase into his computer game SimCity 2000 because "it sounded cool."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  paths is not designing for those who must use the space.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  budget, with no knowledge of what future occupants might want.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  is to wage a fight against uncomprehending, very definitely unsociable bureaucracy.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  true preferences, but not all preferences should be accommodated. Traces and Networks

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  done, what is now required, and what the current status is.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  true of the various design contests and magazines for industrial designers.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  people and bureaucracies, people and machines, and people and other people,

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  signs, and notices litter the walls and walkways of college campuses.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  interfered with and minimized the impact it might otherwise have had.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  When a desire line destroys the pristine plan, it is a sign that the design did not meet human needs.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  for a full year after the rest of the project's completion.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  was a half-century before the invention of hypertext and the Internet).

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  it is made beautiful and elegant, while the back is neglected.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  design systems that support their desires.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  who use it, taking into account their true needs and wants.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Rules are useful, except when they are not followed.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  signal was deliberate or incidental: to the recipient, no distinction is necessary.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  I shouldn't have to be an expert to understand the weather forecast or the traffic update. The experts who give this information know too much. They have great difficulty understanding the problems faced by beginners.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  read or edit: read marks and edit marks, they called them.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  forcing function: the correct behavior is the only possibility.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  people behave, not for how we would wish them to behave.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  those in the field called "artificial life" call this phenomenon "stigmergy":

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  say "but everyone knows which one is the salt" is inexcusable.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Machines certainly do act stupidly, but then again, they are simply machines. Why would we expect otherwise? Even "intelligent" machines are not very smart by human standards. Machines have no way of understanding the actual situation, or the context. They can only deal with events their designers have considered, which means they cannot deal with the unexpected. But unexpected events should be expected to occur.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  A good designer thinks about these things and provides clues-signifiers-as to appropriate use. This requires a special talent: empathy. Designers must place themselves in the position of those who use their designs, and then provide the information required for proper usage, but without destroying the aesthetic beauty or the functions, or increasing the cost. That's the design challenge: managing the tensions.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  largest roll. Algorithm Small Always take paper from the smallest roll. Algorithm

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  and you get frustration at best, accidents and disasters at worst.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Crowds, society, other people have a lot of wisdom, which they share sometimes explicitly, as when they answer questions or post messages, sometimes implicitly, as when the impact of their activities creates signals that can be interpreted: footsteps in the snow, crowds at a restaurant, even just wear and tear.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the electronic guides, even if difficult to explain, are easiest to use. For the expert, the fixed structure is superior.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Silhouette, field marks, posture, size, flight pattern, and habitat-those are what the experts claim are the critical features: then why aren't the books organized that way? In this particular case, the complexity comes from the technological limitations of paper books: the rigidity of the bound pages forces the book to have a single, fixed structure.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  I've listened to many hours of instructions by air traffic controllers to pilots, and to my unskilled ears, they remind me of the weather forecasts and traffic advisories. The differences are that the air traffic controllers speak with a standardized technical language, with special signals to indicate to whom the particular message is directed. Thus, although the controller may issue a long barrage of instructions to several of the airplanes being supervised, each instruction is preceded by the flight number or other identifying name of the recipient. As a result, pilots do not have to listen to everything: they simply "word spot," listening just carefully enough to detect when the name of their flight is called out. Once they hear their flight number, they can switch their attentive state from the secondary task of monitoring to the primary task of full concentration on the following message.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  young, who signal their vulnerability by being the first to flee.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  good design can make the entire problem disappear.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  guides are like the Internet: there is no simple organizational structure.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  "semiotics"

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Social signifiers, moreover, are highly responsive to levels of authority.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  technology misuse.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  information out in the world, because our heads are too cluttered.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  old signs tend to remain in place way past their prime.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Something that works well with only a few cases often fails as the number grows.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  I may simply wish to know if there is heavy traffic along one small stretch of highway: a simple question with a simple answer. Unfortunately, in a large city, the announcer has to attempt to cover everyone's need for similar information on their particular roads. As a result, traffic reports on the radio often consist of several minutes of rapid nonstop talking, with the announcer reciting the traffic status of multiple locations, using place names that only the most knowledgeable local citizens are familiar with, describing inbound and outbound traffic-and the experience is so overwhelming that you are apt to miss the description of the traffic you care about.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  have decided that I am a crackpot, best to be ignored.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Taming technology is a psychological task, not a physical one.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  for different activities, which violates all the security rules, of course.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The secret to coping is to take charge: stick up little reminders, warnings, pictures. Put reminders where you can find them when needed: lines, marks, sticky labels, and instructions. This dramatically simplifies what must be remembered, making it unnecessary to remember the idiosyncrasies of each case.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  simplicity is not the opposite of complexity: complexity is a fact of the world, whereas simplicity is in the mind. The trade-off assumes two things: first, that simplicity is the goal; second, that one must give up something in order to gain the desired simplicity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  design would be so appropriate that proper operation would follow naturally.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Any time you see signs or labels added to a device, it is an indication of bad design: a simple lock should not require instructions.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  lock to let you remember which way means "locked," which "unlocked.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  of the devices should not have to add their own signs.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  context

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  more difficult: This paradox is a challenge to the designer. Simplicity

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  When we compare the complex array of tools that skilled craftspeople select for their tasks, we see that the real complexity does not lie in the tools, but in the task.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Simplicity by itself is not necessarily virtuous.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  complexity indicates status."

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  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.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the paradox of the quest for simplicity: to make our lives easier, we need more powerful, more complex tools.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Complexity can be tamed through proper design. Why the cry for simplicity? It is an honest reaction to the confusion and complications of life; but although the intention is admirable, the proposed solution is mistaken.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  tool goes with which task, and years to master the tools.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The design challenge is to manage complexity so that it isn't complicated.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  usability does not require simplicity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  keyboard. Many mouse operations required the use of the Apple key.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the use of a single button was an important branding symbol for Apple

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  learning would be enhanced with the separate locations, even if usability is somewhat impaired.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  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.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  buyers realize they will probably never use most of the features.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  we don't want to give up any of those cool features.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Every application has an inherent amount of irreducible complexity. The only question is who will have to deal with it, the user or the developer (programmer or engineer). (Tesler and Saffer 2007)

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  features. Everyone wants ease of use, so therefore they want simplicity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  preparation of food is one case where, in the trade-off between simplicity and complexity, simplicity does not always win.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  tea. Simply let the ground coffee beans or tea leaves seep

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  a day, while friendly interactions with pleasant merchants, salespeople, and service representatives

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the perfect flavor with the least amount of effort

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  services that are unnecessarily complicated, confusing, and without apparent structure.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  adults forget how difficult that task was.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  little attention has been paid to the ergonomics of the instruments.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  has learned to accept it. Alphabets form another set of arbitrary complexity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  to work; when to take a break; and when to quit.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  make us smart, things including inventions such as writing and reading.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  minds, which is why it is also called a mental model.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  files and folders are fictions.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  who have attempted to overcome the deficiencies of the scale system.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Society has adapted to many arbitrarily complex systems so well that adults scarcely pay any attention to their complexities and difficulties, for they have forgotten the long period of study required to master them.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  has to improvise appropriately. These skills require a lifetime of practice.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  of the day. Common Aspects of Life That Require Months of Study

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  quite well. By all accounts, driving is a difficult, complex activity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Evans. The designer's job is to provide people with appropriate conceptual models.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  the mysterious rules and regulation of bureaucracy,

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Bruce Sterling,

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  be figured out, something that is not true with Chinese characters.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Could we ever switch to this or any of the many other rational systems? Unlikely: tradition is difficult to overcome.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  simple. The hammer is simple, but the usage is rather advanced:

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  coach. Expert behavior is truly difficult. These tasks have amazing complexity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Rituals invariably add complexity to our lives, but in turn, they provide meaning and a sense of membership in a culture.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  division of the day into two periods of twelve hours remains.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  The flags flying in opposite directions reflect the invisible complexity of nature. Note that observing the flags does not lead to irritation or annoyance so much as amusement: "Maybe we shouldn't go out today, or if we do, watch out for the wind." That is the way nature is: wind can sometimes move in mysterious, complex ways.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Understandability and understanding: two critical keys to mastery.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  Good design can help tame the complexity, not by making things less complex-for the complexity is required-but by managing the complexity.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  expert we become at any subject, the more complexity we prefer.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  It is no great trick to take a simple situation and devise a simple solution. The real problem is that we truly need to have complexity in our lives.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  people prefer a middle level of complexity:

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  of text. Do the complexities of baseball annoy us? Yes, of course,

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  machines than the welfare of the people who will use them.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  species clash,

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  and then to be able to end them-that's another two controls.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  example, familiarity and organization are the two secrets of simplification.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share
• 
  Casey Gollan highlighted

  understanding: things we understand are no longer complicated, no longer confusing.

  6 months ago · Like · 0 likes · Share