“Technology can help only if it can adopt a simple structure so that controls for different devices are as similar to one another as possible, making the learning much easier. Multiple purpose controls are an abomination. It is possible to have a single device transform itself into independent devices for controlling different tasks. But here the key is to make the switch from the support of individual technologies and individual devices to the support of cohesive, organized activities.” (Eddie Lopez – User Centered)

“Adding options is bound to make somebody better off, and further, it won’t make anybody worse off. The more choice people have, the better they are. So how could it not be true? It’s not true.” (Liz Danzico – Boxes and Arrows)

An interview with Paco Underhill – “(…) Boxes and Arrows talks with Underhill about what’s changed about behavior research, the science of watching people, and new considerations for the design community.” (Liz Danzico – Boxes and Arrows)

“In this interview, conducted at the Future of Web Apps Summit, Sarah Drew talks to design and UI expert Jeff Veen, Design Lead at Google.” (vitamin)

“(…) if you look at the academic information visualization community, researchers aren’t focusing on the social side of their applications. Infovis folks love to explore techniques that allow them to scale the data they are showing. But what happens when you scale the audience that’s looking at a visualization?” (Peter Merholz – IDEA 2006 Blog)

“Looking across the 35+ years in which Design Methods has been in use in multiple languages, what from your perspective is the biggest misconception about Design Methods?” (GK VanPatter – NextD)

“Originator of the Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium talks about how far we’ve come, and about the challenges and opportunities ahead.” (IBM developerWorks) – courtesy of readwriteweb

“(…) good design is timeless, while bad design can be a matter of life and death.” (Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr – NPR)

“Tinkering with the medium of the web was always the attraction for me and weblog structure was another way of doing that.” (rebecca’s pocket)

Jesse James Garrett interviews Steven Johnson- “Tufte played a huge role in popularizing the story — to this day, most of the people I meet who are familiar with it read about it in Tufte first. He actually wrote about it twice, (…). His original assessment was factually wrong on a number of fronts – it greatly overstated the role of the map in solving the mystery of where the cholera was coming from, and the map itself that Tufte included was a heavily modified replica created for a 1912 textbook on public health. In the later book, he got the story right, though I think he’s a little too bullish on the map’s originality as a work of information design.” – (Adaptive Path)

Peter Merholz interviews Michael Bierut – “Making room for the real world is even harder today than it was 30 years ago. The amount of technical skills a young designer needs is vast, and the degree of professional specialization is staggering. All of this helps to foster an atmosphere that seems to reward tunnel vision. But in the end, the designers who are doing the most exciting work — and in some cases it coincidentally happens to be the most beautiful work — are the ones who don’t hesitate to claim the whole world as their subject matter.” (Adaptive Path)

Jesse James Garrett interviews Steven Johnson- “Clearly interfaces are tools for understanding the world. So many of the most interesting debates in the ‘new media’ space revolve precisely around the question of how specific interfaces will shape the user’s view of the world. And those debates play back into the design decisions that shape the next generation of software.” (Adaptive Path)

Liz Danzico interviews Dan Saffer on his new book – “Genius design is when the designer relies on his or her own experience and skill to design, without any input from users. It’s done by designers who either don’t have the resources or the inclination or temperament to do research. Too often, it is practiced by inexperienced designers with little skill, but it can and has been used by many designers to create impressive things. Reportedly, the iPod was made with no user research, for example.” (BusinessWeek.com)

“The one constant online (…) is that linked text is still central to the medium and its interface innovations.” (Jesse James Garrett – Adaptive Path)

“I believe that we now do understand how to design so that the result truly fits people. By ‘we’, I mean the design community, the design theorists (which is where I fit), and the university community of design.” (Marco van Hout – Design & Emotion)

“One of the hard lessons I had to learn as a designer starting out was that good design is not a self-evident imperative for most people. I tell students that they are spending time and money in design school acquiring an abnormal sensitivity to design that most regular people should not be expected to share.” (Peter Merholz – Adaptive Path)

“When properly applied, visual design is all about communication. The better at communicating we are, the easier it is for our users to use and appreciate the web sites we design.” (Joshua Porter – User Interface Engineering)

“They are over-organized; there are too many messages; and nobody wants to take on responsibility. In fact, it is a perfect mirror of German society right now. It is very much akin to the governing grand coalition — two big parties that are basically canceling each other out because no one can make any decisions. Everyone is trying to be nice, everyone knows we have to do something, change society, change behavior, and economy, but no one wants to take the first step because we’re so comfortable. We’re still wrapped up in our nice security blanket. We know it’s cold outside, but we just stay inside and huddle. This sort of World Cup design is very much communal huddling — trying to please everyone but never even putting a finger outside of that security blanket.” (says Erik Spiekermann – Deutsche Welle) – courtesy of dirkknemeyer

“I’ve come to believe strongly that one of the roles of design is to bring humanity, intelligence and beauty to the world of business, and indeed to everyday life.” (Peter Merholz – Adaptive Path)

“The number one skill that every web team should have is the ability and desire to relentlessly focus on the needs of the customer. Web teams must enjoy being around the customer, they must be stimulated by thinking of the customer. You have those skills and everything else fits into place.” (Christine Perfetti – User Interface Engineering)