Jeffrey Zeldman Quotes

When you go to a site, you usually run into usability problems pretty quickly. They're not hidden. They're not complicated. They're not baffling. They were in the design or crept into the design.

For much of its existence, design was all about convenience. We wanted to hide technology so that users are not distracted into thinking about the tools they use.

Web users ultimately want to get at data quickly and easily. They don't care as much about attractive sites and pretty design.

I love the idea of web design that maximises expressiveness over functionality.

Ease of navigation is important in both physical and virtual space.

My mantra is: 'Good design accelerates the adoption of new ideas.'

There's a fundamental problem with how the software business does things. We're asking people who are masters of hard-edged technology to design the soft, human side of software as well. As a result, they make products that are really cool - if you happen to be a software engineer.

User-centered design means understanding what your users need, how they think, and how they behave - and incorporating that understanding into every aspect of your process.

The less concerned with aesthetics and usability these friends and family members are, the more easily they navigate sites and applications I can't make head nor hair of. Like the ex-girlfriend who mastered Ebay.

We found a way to make things look great to the human eye through the window of a graphical web browser without worrying about what everything looked like under the hood.

Good design to me is both appearance and functionality together. It's the experience that makes it good design.

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

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

Design should be easy in the sense that every step should be obviously and clearly identifiable. Simplify elements to make change simple so you can manage the technical risk.

I could open a thousand Excel documents and still never think to scroll past a wall of empty rows to see if, hidden beneath them, there is a tab I need to click. Just doesn't occur to me. Because, design.

There are already a lot of devices in our lives that have rich text or the ability to handle graphics. Our devices are designed to be understood in less than a quarter of a second.

Far too few designers put any thought into usability, ending up with a great product that's completely inaccessible.

The utmost thing is the user experience, to have the most useful experience.

The only important thing about design is how it relates to people.

I did an early version of my site where it was virtually impossible to get through it, just as a statement about the web. But after a few laughs and some angry e-mails, I realized it wasn't doing me much good. I think the web has become more about the final product, not what it takes to get to it.

We've tried to simplify the site because some people found it too difficult to use and were intimidated by it.

Consumers have zero time for products that are not simple, intuitive, and attractive to use. This is especially true with Internet products, where clean and useful design is a prerequisite to keeping anyone on your site for more than 30 seconds.

Of course Airbnb made mistakes the first year! Some came from our own preconceptions. When we started, we designed our interface for ourselves, Internet-savvy twentysomethings. We never considered the role of good eyesight in our interface - font size, vernacular; it all matters.

I feel like there are actually a lot of relationships between a website and a film in terms of designing an experience for a screen.

The Internet is full of choices, and nobody is going to make the choice to use a product that is hard to use or unattractive.