“Personal computing is in an awkward adolescence right now. On one hand, we are rapidly moving into ubiquitous computing environments that let people constantly interact with the omnipresent network; on the other, the devices and interfaces we are using to enter these new frontiers provide woefully inadequate user experiences. Let’s take a look at one of the key technologies that will take mobile user experiences to the next level: holography.” (Dirk Knemeyer – UXmatters)

“(…) unlike screen-based work, where we tend to get caught up in breakpoints with a single “organizer” — the software — MAYA had to grapple with three potential points of failure. This is orders of magnitude more complex.” (Peter Merholz)

“It seems like a paradox but it will soon become reality: The rate at which computers disappear will be matched by the rate at which information technology will increasingly permeate our environment and determine our lives. This notion of the ‘disappearing computer’ is one of the starting points that determines our work. Another one is the shift from information worlds to experience worlds. This was a consequence of our work on innovative office environments where we explored the range of social processes that should be supported with information technology and the shift to a new application domain, i.e. games and entertainment in the context of home environments.” (Norbert Streitz et al. – uigarden)

“Do pioneers have to end up as has-beens? Despite an early and influential role as organizers, protectors, and providers of information, libraries have not always evolved in tandem with the desires and expectations of their customers.” (MAYA Design: Taming Complexity) – courtesy of peterme

“Just as physical ergonomics is important to the health of the body, cognitive ergonomics is important to the health of the mind. Developers need to have a deeper understanding that regardless of what technology allows them to do, the end product must conform to the natural way in which humans work.” (Paul Chin – Intranet Journal) – courtesy of usernomics

Lecture at the ICOGRADA/FRONTEIRAS congress, Sao Paulo, April 29th and 30th, 2004 – “Structure is an important way to start: structure information in ways that make it accessible to others: facilitating access is like giving out a passport: if designers help their users to cross frontiers of cultural knowledge and experience, and facilitate them to exchange and share information and experiences with others, then design has answered its first and most important brief: to build interfaces.” (Max Bruinsma)

“Because most start-ups run lean and mean, their employees tend to take on multiple roles to fill in gaps in expertise and role. Consultants working for a start-up are no different. A designer brought in to work on the visual design of an application is likely to do some coding, interaction design, or information architecture.” (LukeW – Functioning Form)

“Shibumi is a principle that can be applied to many aspects of life. Concerning visual communication and graphic design, shibumi represents elegant simplicity and articulate brevity, an understated elegance.” (Garr Reynolds – Presentationzen)

“If there is one reason – more than any other – why a website fails, it is because it doesn’t understand its customers.” (Gerry McGovern)

“The authors, a working group of architects, product designers, engineers and environmental design researchers, collaborated to establish the following Principles of Universal Design to guide a wide range of design disciplines including environments, products, and communications. These seven principles may be applied to evaluate existing designs, guide the design process and educate both designers and consumers about the characteristics of more usable products and environments.” – (Center for Universal Design – uiGarden.net)

“So what will the next ten years feel like? Disorienting at first, but normal eventually. It will take time for users to acclimate to the semi-structured experiences available on the Web, and even longer to accept the unstructured experiences. We’ll shed some of the metaphors — sites, bookmarks, pages, and so on – that we’ve used to orient ourselves on the Web, in the same way that cars stopped having running boards and television has stopped broadcasting stage plays.” – (Dan Saffer – Adaptive Path)

“Despite record fuel prices, Ryanair makes record profits. Its no-frills website has helped this no-frills airline achieve such phenomenal success.” – (Gerry McGovern)

“(…) with more than a year of experience working in Silicon Valley and seeing inside various leading technology companies – both as a consultant/designer and through my speaking and networking activities – I’ve realized that the basic corporate design model for Web and application design is broken. This article will share some of the conclusions I’ve drawn and propose some better approaches for designing successful applications.” – (Dirk Knemeyer – Digital Web Magazine)

“(…) two contrasting visual approaches employed by Gates and Jobs in their presentations while keeping key aesthetic concepts found in Zen in mind. I believe we can use many of the concepts in Zen and Zen aesthetics to help us compare their presentation visuals as well as help us improve our own visuals. My point in comparing Jobs and Gates is not to poke fun but to learn.” – (Garr Reynolds – Presentation Zen)

“People like experts because people like clear answers and rules. On the Web, Jakob Nielsen is seen as an expert. It’s one of the reasons he’s so popular.” (Gerry McGovern)

“Every large corporation has a marketing strategy that outlines what it wants to say to customers, but many of them still aren’t using their homepages effectively to highlight that message.” (Indy Young – Adaptive Path)

“This research has looked at how designers interact with visual material in the early phases of design and what new tools can do to support this. These questions were addressed by literature reviews and field studies, furthermore several working prototypes have been built, which have been used to gain and demonstrate the knowledge built up during this research.” (Ianus Keller – ID-Studiolab) – courtesy of peterboersma

“(…) a presentation suggesting that in the most compelling information design, the expression of an idea should form a map to its meaning. This presentation includes collected exhibits and ideas from leading voices on the study of information design and its meaning. The first presentation of this material was given at Abt Associates in Cambridge Massachusetts.” (Andrew Maydoney – Sametz Blackstone Associates articles) – courtesy of cph127

“There has never been more information. And that’s exactly the problem. Too much information too quickly published is just as bad as too little.” (Gerry McGovern)

“Real knowledge and understanding is the product of a co-creation.” (Kathy Sierra – Creating Passionate Users)