Alan Cooper famous quotes

06-24-2025

No matter how beautiful, no matter how cool your interface, it would be better if there were less of it.
-- Alan Cooper

#Beautiful #Design #Would Be
Ironically, the thing that will likely make the least improvement in the ease of use of software-based products is new technology. There is little difference technically between a complicated, confusing program and a simple, fun, and powerful product.
-- Alan Cooper

#Fun #Powerful #Technology
If we want users to like our software we should design it to behave like a likeable person: respectful, generous and helpful.
-- Alan Cooper

#Design #Want #Helpful
Just how do I design if not with prototyping? An excellent question. The short answer is 'on paper.'
-- Alan Cooper

#Design #Answers #Paper
A powerful tool in the early stages of developing scenarios is toÂ pretend the interface isÂ magic.Â If your persona has goals and the product hasÂ magicalÂ powers to meet them, how simple could the interaction be? This kind of thinking is useful to help designers look outside the box.
-- Alan Cooper

#Powerful #Simple #Thinking
It's harder than you might think to squander millions of dollars, but a flawed software development process is a tool well suited to the job.
-- Alan Cooper

#Jobs #Thinking #Dollars
Past dreams of bliss our lives contain, And slight the chords that still retain A heart estranged to joys again, To scenes by memory's silver chain Close-linked, and ever yet apart, That like the vine, whose tendrils young Around some fostering branch have clung, Grown with its growth, as tho' it sprung From one united heart.
-- Alan Cooper

#Dream #Memories #Heart
Computers no longer interface with humans--they interact, and the interaction will become steadily deeper, more subtle, and more crucial to our collective sanity and ultimate survival.
-- Alan Cooper

#Survival #Computer #Sanity
One of the most heinous, insidious lies is the notion that you have to be an ***** to be a successful business person.
-- Alan Cooper

#Lying #Successful #Entrepreneur
Run for your lives-the computers are invading. Awesomely powerful computers tackling ever more important tasks with awkward, old-fashioned interfaces. As these machines leak into every corner of our lives, they will annoy us, infuriate us, and even kill a few of us. In turn, we will be tempted to kill our computers, but we won't dare because we are already utterly, irreversibly dependent on these hopeful monsters that make modern life possible.
-- Alan Cooper

#Running #Powerful #Hopeful
To our human minds, computers behave less like rocks and trees than they do like humans, so we unconsciously treat them like people.... In other words, humans have special instincts that tell them how to behave around other sentient beings, and as soon as any object exhibits sufficient cognitive function, those instincts kick in and we react as though we were interacting with another sentient human being.
-- Alan Cooper

#Rocks #People #Tree
Design principle: Take things away until the design breaks, then put that last thing back in.
-- Alan Cooper

#Simplicity #Design #Principles
Keep it simple: In general, interfaces should use simple geometric forms, minimal contours, and a restricted color palette comprised primarily of less-saturated or neutral colors balanced with a few high contrast accent colors that emphasize important information. Typography should not vary widely in an interface.
-- Alan Cooper

#Simple #Color #Simplicity
Men do not greet one another like this ... except perhaps at rugby club dinners.
-- Alan Cooper

#Men #Clubs #Dinner
Because computers have memories, we imagine that they must be something like our human memories, but that is simply not true. Computer memories work in a manner alien to human memories. My memory lets me recognize the faces of my friends, whereas my own computer never even recognizes me. My computer's memory stores a million phone numbers with perfect accuracy, but I have to stop and think to recall my own.
-- Alan Cooper

#Memories #Thinking #Numbers
Well madam, have you looked in the mirror and seen the state of your nose? Boxing is my excuse. What's yours?
-- Alan Cooper

#Mirrors #Boxing #Noses
It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets.
-- Alan Cooper

#Technology #Discipline #Example

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