Nat Friedman Quotes

For many people my software is something that you install and forget. I like to keep it that way.

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

I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it.

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

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.

People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices. They do not want to have to learn how to set up something for photos, another thing for music, another thing for video.

What is so brilliant about the gadgets is their simplicity.

The second stream of material that is going to come out of this project is a programming environment and a set of programming tools where we really want to focus again on the needs of the newbie. This environment is going to have to be extremely user-friendly.

Reducing a product's definition to a list of features and functions ignores the real opportunity - orchestrating technological capability to serve human needs and goals.

Computer programming has been traditionally seen as something that is beyond most people - it's only for a special group with technical expertise and experience. We have developed 'Scratch' as a new type of programming language, which is much more accessible.

A computer shall not waste your time or require you to do more work than is strictly necessary.

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

I'm interested in technology for the masses. Good tech design should not just be for enthusiasts but for the general public. It should be something that touches everyone.

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.'

Tablets are more intuitive than a PC or laptop. They also have more real estate than a smartphone.

What's great about the iPad and iPhone is that they are easy-on, easy-off.

I think all technology should be plug and play. I would say it's easier to set up a blog than it is to change channels on your telly.

Regardless of age, gender, or game experience, anyone can understand Wii.

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 Web is trivially simple - massively successful and its like Karaoke - anybody can do it.

...I know good design when I fail to trip over it.

Humanizing technology is about taking what's already natural about the human-tech experience and building technology seamlessly in tandem with it.

All through time in Apple products, even from our very first ones, that's how he [Steve Jobs] looked at the world, that you don't really want a piece of technology, a certain type of chip. What you want is a solution to a problem in life, some cause, some issue that you want in your life that'll help you. And it's how do you make that almost one step - say it and it happens.

The Macintosh was supposed to be the computer for people that just wanted to use a computer without having to learn how to use one.

Using an artful tool does not make one a dry technician. It seems to me that people that are anxious about our technical advancement, confuse means and ends. Naturally a person that only works for material gain will not harvest something that is worth living for. But the machine is not an end in itself. The airplane is not an end. It is a tool. Just like the plough.