Brian Eno Quotes

Technology has to be invisible. Transparent. Just simple.

If we actually thought about every decision we made, we'd be paralyzed ... You have to decide which decisions you're actually going to make, and then you have to let the rest of them go.

Taken as a whole, consumer technologies have made startling advances, but they still are not as easy to use as they should be.

Apple products aren't simple technologies by any stretch, but there is a beautiful simplicity to them.

I have always believed that technology should do the hard work - discovery, organization, communication - so users can do what makes them happiest: living and loving, not messing with annoying computers! That means making our products work together seamlessly.

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

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.

Design must be functional, and functionality must be translated into visual aesthetics without any reliance on gimmicks that have to be explained.

My goal is to simplify complexity. I just want to build stuff that really simplifies our base human interaction.

I'm not very good at multi-tasking. Most people aren't, but they think they are. The mind is really better when you're really focused on one thing.

Most people have no concept of how an automatic transmission works, yet they know how to drive a car. You don't have to study physics to understand the laws of motion to drive a car. You don't have to understand any of this stuff to use Macintosh.

The wonderful thing about Apple technology is just how intuitive it is.

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

Every tech product on the body like Jawbone or in the home like August is different. But there are definitely principles that apply across the board for me, such as integration in everyday life and discretion.

Our goal is simple objects, objects that you can't imagine any other way.

What I hope is, over time, users should not have to read a training manual. They should say, 'I totally get the Workday iPad app, because it runs the way my consumer apps run.'

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.

When you and I go to work, and we use a computer to work and find that our work apps are completely onerous and the apps we use at home are quite easy, we wonder, why can't it be simpler, easier, quicker, and less expensive?

Good technology is intuitive - the cellphone forces you to become an engineer.

When a device as simple as a door has to come with an instruction manual—even a one-word manual—then it is a failure, poorly designed.

The tool user, provided the tool is made well, need not, and indeed should not, know anything about the tool.

The computing scientist's main challenge is not to get confused by the complexities of his own making.

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

What makes something simple or complex? It's not the number of dials or controls or how many features it has: It is whether the person using the device has a good conceptual model of how it operates.

A software system is transparent when you can look at it and immediately see what is going on. It is simple when what is going on is uncomplicated enough for a human brain to reason about all the potential cases without strain