User Interface Quotes

• 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.

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  53 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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

  52 Copy quote

• A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.

  Ted Nelson

  Simple, Beginners, Emergencies

  "A different vision of the computer world". sydney.edu.au. April 4, 2011.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Steve Jobs' ability to focus in on a few things that count, get people who get user interface right, and market things as revolutionary are amazing things.

  Bill Gates

  Jobs, People, Focus

  "The strange love-hate relationship between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs" by Matt Weinberger, www.businessinsider.com. June 4, 2017,.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Joel Spolsky

  Program, Wells, Behave

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

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• When designers replaced the command line interface with the graphical user interface, billions of people who are not programmers could make use of computer technology.

  Howard Rheingold

  Technology, People, Lines

  7 Copy quote

• I don't want to use my creative energy on somebody else's user interface.

  Jeff Bezos

  Creative, Energy, Use

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• User interface is customer service for the computer.

  Julie Larson-Green

  Computer, Interfaces, Customers

  "Microsoft is ready to open a new, easy-to-use Window" by Jessica Mintz, The Associated Press, abcnews.go.com.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I closely follow everything about user interface or human-computer interface: technology that makes computers closer to the way the human being actually functions.

  Francois-Henri Pinault

  Technology, Way, Computer

  "Meet Le Geek: Francois-Henri Pinault". Interview with Joe Einhorn, techcrunch.com. August 5, 2012.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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, Type

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

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unfortunately, nigh the whole world is now duped into thinking that silly fill-in forms on web pages is the way to do user interfaces.

  Erik Naggum

  Silly, Thinking, World

  "Pause for keystroke". groups.google.com. OCtober 6, 2001.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The truth of Moore's law has made remarkable things possible. On the software side, I think natural user interfaces in all their forms are equally significant.

  Bill Gates

  Thinking, Law, Sides

  6 Copy quote

• Computer science departments have always considered 'user interface' research to be sissy work.

  Nicholas Negroponte

  Research, Computer, Sissy

  "Lifestreams" by Steve G. Steinberg, www.wired.com. February 1, 1997.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It was one of those sort of apocalyptic moments. I remember within ten minutes of seeing the graphical user interface stuff, just knowing that every computer would work this way someday. It was so obvious once you saw it. It didn't require tremendous intellect. It was so clear.

  Steve Jobs

  Knowing, Stuff, Way

  8 Copy quote

• It's like male geeks don't know how to deal with real live women, so they just assume it's a user interface problem. Not their fault. They'll just wait for the next version to come out- something more "user friendly.

  Douglas Coupland

  Real, Waiting, Friendly

  4 Copy quote

• Radically simplify the user interface, reinvent it, enough face lifts! You can put as much lipstick on a chicken as you want, it's never going to look good!

  Philippe Kahn

  Looks, Want, Faces

  4 Copy quote

• Computing has gone from something tiny and specialized to something that affects every walk of life. It doesn't make sense anymore to think of it as just one discipline. I expect to see separate departments of user interface, for example, to start emerging at universities.

  Nathan Myhrvold

  Thinking, Discipline, Tiny

  "Lifestreams" by Steve G.Steinberg, www.wired.com. February 01, 1997.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Women have their own strengths, like fashion. In technology, we can contribute in a big way in terms of the design of the user interface.

  Weili Dai

  Fashion, Technology, Design

  4 Copy quote

• They don't make poles long enough for me want to touch Microsoft products, and I don't want any mass-marketed game-playing device or Windows appliance near my desk or on my network. This is my workbench, dammit, it's not a pretty box to impress people with graphics and sounds. When I work at this system up to 12 hours a day, I'm profoundly uninterested in what user interface a novice user would prefer.

  Erik Naggum

  Games, Long, People

  Re: Why lisp failed in the marketplace (Usenet article), groups.google.com. February 16, 1997.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.

  Steve Jobs

  Television, Would Be, Use

  "Next up for Apple, it's iTV - the television that will respond when you shout at it" by Juliette Garside, www.theguardian.com. November 26, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• You need to look no further than Apple's iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window.

  Edgar Bronfman, Jr.

  Loyalty, Iphone, Apples

  "Hell Freezes Over: Warner Music claims Itunes is Digital Music Done Right" by Bryan Gardiner, www.wired.com. November 14, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• History repeats itself again, I guess. The rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don't innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about, is now five years old.

  Thorsten Heins

  Iphone, Years, Innovation

  "BlackBerry CEO calls Apple's iPhone user interface outdated" by Katie Marsal, appleinsider.com. March 18, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Well, Apple invented the PC as we know it, and then it invented the graphical user interface as we know it eight years later (with the introduction of the Mac). But then, the company had a decade in which it took a nap.

  Steve Jobs

  Eight, Naps, Years

  Steve Jobs (0101). “Motivating Thoughts of Steve Jobs”, p.24, Prabhat Prakashan

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.

  Thorsten Heins

  Years, Iphone, Invention

  "BlackBerry CEO calls Apple's iPhone user interface outdated" by Katie Marsal, appleinsider.com. March 18, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source