Explore Quotes on Design

Working within the constraints of a problem is part of the fun and challenge of design.

Designers provide ways into—and out of—the flood of words by breaking up text into pieces and offering shortcuts and alternate routes through masses of information. (...) Although many books define the purpose of typography as enhancing the readability of the written word, one of design’s most humane functions is, in actuality, to help readers avoid reading.

Is there a design in the events of our lives? Or do things just happen, much like a junk yard falling down a staircase? If it's the latter, how do you deal with it?

It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.

Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad.

Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.

Fair Flora! Now attend thy sportful feast, _x000D__x000D_Of which some days I with design have past; _x000D__x000D_A part in April and a part in May _x000D__x000D_Thou claim'st, and both command my tuneful lay; _x000D__x000D_And as the confines of two months are thine _x000D__x000D_To sing of both the double task be mine.

When a man gets it into his head to do something, and when he exclusively occupies himself in that design, he must succeed, whatever the difficulties. That man will become Grand Vizier or Pope.

The constructive intellect [genius] produces thoughts, sentences, poems, plans, designs, systems. It is the generation of the mind, the marriage of thought with nature.

Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better - because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

We try to solve the problem by rushing through the design process so that enough time is left at the end of the project to uncover the errors that were made because we rushed through the design process

If you think good architecture is expensive, try bad architecture.

A brute force solution that works is better than an elegant solution that doesn't work.

A little retrospection shows that although many fine, useful software systems have been designed by committees and built as part of multipart projects, those software systems that have excited passionate fans are those that are the products of one or a few designing minds, great designers.

Become a creative thinking detective! Ask probing questions. There is no such thing as a wasted question.

What users want is convenience and results.

Just how do I design if not with prototyping? An excellent question. The short answer is 'on paper.'

Users are not designers.

A well-designed and humane interface does not have to be split into beginner and expert subsystems.

Designers are not users.