Mitchell Baker Quotes

There is beauty when something works and it works intuitively.

Do you know what I like about your program? Even when I'm running the vacuum, I can understand it.

Things that are ultimately complex must have a simple end user experience if they are to be successful.

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.

Keeping it simple for the consumer is incredibly dire.

I wrote a lot about the need for an information appliance. I think we've pretty much arrived at one: the iPad. A child could figure out how to use it quickly. Compare it to a DOS computer or even an Apple II; it's no longer nearly as much of a hassle or a mystery.

I feel that it's lovely when, as a user, you're not aware of the complexity.

Computers shouldn't be unusable. You don't need to know how to work a telephone switch to make a phone call, or how to use the Hoover Dam to take a shower, or how to work a nuclear-power plant to turn on the lights.

What we're starting to see is that the best apps tend to be the simplest, the easiest to use and the fastest to use.

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.

The best version of Foursquare is the one you don't think about using.

Computers are scary. They're nightmares to fix, lose our stuff, and, on occasion, they crash, producing the blue screen of death. Steve Jobs knew this. He knew that computers were bulky and hernia-inducing and Darth Vader black. He understood the value of declarative 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.

We want to let you use a Mac, or Windows PC, or iPad, or Android, without having to think about any of the technical details.

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

Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.

You push the button, we do the rest.

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.'

At the end of the day, you want a straightforward, simple system which everyone understands. If you can get clarity and simplicity in any process, it's better for everybody.

Technology has to be invisible. Transparent. Just simple.

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

One of the things I've been working on for the past few months is a radical simplification of the interface.

What users want is convenience and results.

The defining qualities are about use: ease and simplicity. Caring beyond the functional imperative, we also acknowledge that products have a significance way beyond traditional views of function.