Interfaces Quotes

• A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about.

  Douglas Adams

  Moving, Technology, Typewriters

  Douglas Adams (2009). “Mostly Harmless”, p.57, Pan Macmillan

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• First was the mouse. The second was the click wheel. And now, we're going to bring multi-touch to the market. And each of these revolutionary interfaces has made possible a revolutionary product - the Mac, the iPod and now the iPhone.

  Steve Jobs

  Iphone, Ipods, Firsts

  Steve Jobs (0101). “Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs”, p.60, Prabhat Prakashan

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• A general principle for all user interface design is to go through all of your design elements and remove them one at a time.

  Jakob Nielsen

  Design, Principles, Elements

  Jakob Nielsen (2000). “Designing Web Usability”, New Riders Pub

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• I am only a footnote, but proud of the footnote I have become. My subsequent work on eliciting principles and developing the theory of interface design, so that many people will be able to do what I did is probably also footnote-worthy. In looking back at this turn-of-the-century period, the rise of a worldwide network will be seen as the most significant part of the computer revolution.

  Jef Raskin

  People, Design, Principles

  Interview in "The Guardian", October 21, 2004.

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

  Jef Raskin

  Simplicity, Design, Experts

  "The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems".

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• A picture is worth a thousand words. An interface is worth a thousand pictures.

  Ben Shneiderman

  Technology, Design, Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

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• I am suggesting that we recognize that in network and interface research there is something as profound (and potential wild) as Artificial Intelligence.

  Vernor Vinge

  Profound, Research, Artificial Intelligence

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• I have discovered that there are two types of command interfaces in the world of computing: good interfaces and user interfaces.

  Daniel J. Bernstein

  Two, World, User Interface

  "The qmail security guarantee" by Daniel J. Bernstein, cr.yp.to.

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• First, I'd like to see the basic tools such as compilers, debuggers, profilers, database interfaces, GUI builders, CAD tools, and so forth fully support the ISO standard.

  Bjarne Stroustrup

  Support, Tools, Cad

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• One of the problems with computers, particularly for the older people, is they were befuddled by them, and the computers have gotten better. They have gotten easier to use. They have gotten less expensive. The software interfaces have made things a lot more accessible

  Steve Case

  People, Use, Computer

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• Once the product's task is known, design the interface first; then implement to the interface design.

  Jef Raskin

  Design, Tasks, Firsts

  Jef Raskin (2000). “The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems”, p.5, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• People who work on the user interface side need to have empathy as a key characteristic. But if you are writing device drivers you don't really need to understand humans so well.

  Andy Hertzfeld

  Writing, Keys, People

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• As far as the customer is concerned, the interface is the product.

  Jef Raskin

  Educational, Design, Experience

  Jef Raskin (2000). “The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems”, p.5, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• In many cases the user interface to a program is the most important part for a commercial company: whether the programs works correctly or not seems to be secondary.

  Linus Torvalds

  Important, Economy, Program

  "Linux's Linus Torvalds Interview". Interview with Hiroo Yamagata, www.drdobbs.com. January 1, 2002.

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• An interface is humane if it is responsive to human needs and considerate of human frailties.

  Jef Raskin

  Needs, Frailty, Considerate

  Jef Raskin (2000). “The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems”, p.6, Addison-Wesley Professional

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• I think complexity is mostly sort of crummy stuff that is there because it's too expensive to change the interface.

  Jaron Lanier

  Change, Technology, Thinking

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• The user of the electric light - or a hammer, or a language, or a book - is the content. As such, there is a total metamorphosis of the user by the interface. It is the metamorphosis that I consider the message.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Book, Light, Hammers

  "Letters of Marshall McLuhan" by Marshall McLuhan, (p. 397), 1987.

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• The librarian isn't a clerk who happens to work in a library. A librarian is a data hound, a guide, a sherpa and a teacher. The librarian is the interface between reams of data and the untrained but motivated user.

  Seth Godin

  Teacher, Data, Clerks

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• Since changing interfaces breaks clients you should consider them as immutable once you've published them.

  Erich Gamma

  Clients, Break, Should

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• A user interface is well-designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would.

  Joel Spolsky

  Program, User Interface, Wells

  "User Interface Design For Programmers". Book by Joel Spolsky, www.joelonsoftware.com. October 24, 2001.

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• Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.

  Douglas McIlroy

  Writing, Program, Streams

  "A Quarter Century of UNIX". Book by Peter H. Salus, 1980.

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• The brilliance here is appropriation: space, form and interface combine to create a Jetsons sound machine. A dream of music access that just hovers, its floating defines a space. The shape seems so obviously sci-fi, but fresh. The function could follow the form. The shape is beautiful and functional-which hits both of the pillars of American Needs right on the head.

  Tucker Viemeister

  Beautiful, Dream, Space

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• If you need to visualize the soul, think of it as a cross between a wolf howl, a photon and a dribble of dark molasses. But what it really is, as near as I can tell, is a packet of information. It's a program, a piece of hyperspatial software designed explicitly to interface with the Mystery. Not a mystery, mind you - the Mystery. The one that can never be solved.

  Tom Robbins

  Dark, Thinking, Soul

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• I think art is the development of this interface between mind and matter, between mind and phenomenon, between what's inside of us and what's happening outside of us. It developed over the course of the last 35,000 years. We made a lot of improvements because it not only gave us the tools to understand the world better, but it also gave us better and better tools to do it. It's that continuous relationship: technology and discernment.

  Vik Muniz

  Art, Technology, Thinking

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The global village is a place of very arduous interfaces and very abrasive situations.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Village, Situation, Global Village

  "The Education of Mike McManus" (TV Ontario), December 28, 1977.

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