“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.”

—  Donald A. Norman, book The Design of Everyday Things

Source: The Design of Everyday Things (1988, 2002), Ch. 4, p. 87; regarding doors labeled "Push" and "Pull".

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "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, p…" by Donald A. Norman?
Donald A. Norman photo
Donald A. Norman29
American academic 1935

Related quotes

Scott Westerfeld photo

“Life doesn't come with an instruction manual.”

Scott Westerfeld book Extras

Source: Extras

Stephen King photo

“Once you get into cosmological shit like this, you got to throw away the instruction manual.”

Stephen King book It

The Voice of The Turtle
It (1986)

Marguerite Duras photo

“I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Walesa's Wife, from Practicalities (1987, trans. 1990).

Arthur C. Clarke photo

“I am afraid that this chapter will amply demonstrate the truth of Clarke's 69th Law, viz., "Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software." In both cases the cure is simple though usually very expensive.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

"Appendix II: MITE for Morons," The Odyssey File (1984), p. 123
On Clarke's Laws

Philip K. Dick photo

““Sometimes I wish I knew how to go crazy. I forget how.”
“It’s a lost art,” Hank said. “Maybe there’s an instruction manual on it.””

Philip K. Dick book A Scanner Darkly

Source: A Scanner Darkly (1977), Chapter 4 (p. 56)

Dexter S. Kimball photo

“The term division of labor has, from long usage, become associated in the public mind with manual processes. But productive labor is, in general, both manual and mental and just as there may be division of manual labor so there may be division of mental labor or division of thought. Modern productive methods tend constantly to separate mental labor from manual labor and then to subdivide each into smaller and smaller parts. The subdivision of manual labor is greatly furthered, as has been seen, by the extended use of tools. Subdivision of mental labor on the other hand is hastened by an increase in the amount of knowledge and mental development necessary to successfully perform the work in hand. Thus the mental labor of designing machinery is performed largely apart from the actual production; and this mental labor has become very closely specialized as the scientific basis of engineering has grown. This process of subdivision is greatly hastened in both manual and mental operations by increased quantity since this, of itself, enables the manager to avail himself of the inherent advantages of division of labor already discussed.”

Dexter S. Kimball (1865–1952) American engineer

Source: Principles of industrial organization, 1913, p. 48

Philip K. Howard photo

“The utopian urge that prompted us in recent decades to write the world's thickest instruction manual, naming it the law of the land, has led us to invent a device that, like detailed rules, also avoids the untidiness of human judgment. It goes by an ancient name, process, but its purpose is new. It once existed to help humans make responsible decisions. Process now has become an end in itself.”

Philip K. Howard (1948) American lawyer

The Death of Common Sense, ISBN 0-679-42994-8, p. 60.

Donald A. Norman photo

“Good design is also an act of communication between the designer and the user, except that all the communication has to come about by the appearance of the device itself. The device must explain itself.”

Donald A. Norman book The Design of Everyday Things

Introduction to the 2002 Edition, p. xi.
The Design of Everyday Things (1988, 2002)

Andrew Solomon photo

“Insofar as I have written a self-help book, it is a how-to manual for receptivity: a description of how to tolerate what cannot be cured, and an argument that cures are not always appropriate even when they are feasible.”

Andrew Solomon (1963) American journalist

Source: Far from the Tree, Ch. 12 Father, p. 701-702.

Adrienne Rich photo

“Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Neither is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard. There is no universal Poetry, anyway, only poetries and poetics, and the streaming, intertwining histories to which they belong.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

&quot;Legislators of the world&quot; in The Guardian (18 November 2006) http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1950812,00.html <br class="br">Context: I&#x27;m both a poet and one of the &quot;everybodies&quot; of my country. I live with manipulated fear, ignorance, cultural confusion and social antagonism huddling together on the faultline of an empire. I hope never to idealise poetry — it has suffered enough from that. Poetry is not a healing lotion, an emotional massage, a kind of linguistic aromatherapy. Neither is it a blueprint, nor an instruction manual, nor a billboard. There is no universal Poetry, anyway, only poetries and poetics, and the streaming, intertwining histories to which they belong. There is room, indeed necessity, for both Neruda and César Valléjo, for Pier Paolo Pasolini and Alfonsina Storni, for both Ezra Pound and Nelly Sachs. Poetries are no more pure and simple than human histories are pure and simple. And there are colonised poetics and resilient poetics, transmissions across frontiers not easily traced.

Related topics