"Second, Mint focused on making the user do almost no work at all, by automatically editing and categorizing their data, reducing the number of fields in their signup form, and giving them immediate gratification as soon as they possibly could. We completely sucked at all of that. Instead, I prioritized trying to build tools that would eventually help people change their financial behavior for the better, which I believed required people to more closely work with and understand their data. My goals may have been (okay, were) noble, but in the end we didn’t help the people I wanted to since the product failed. I was focused on trying to make the usability of editing data as easy and functional as it could be; Mint was focused on making it so you never had to do that at all. Their approach completely kicked our approach’s ass. To be defensive for just a moment, their data accuracy — how well they automatically edited — was really low, and anyone who looked deeply into their data at Mint, especially in the beginning, was shocked at how inaccurate it was. The point, though, is hardly anyone seems to have looked."
"Write scenarios that can be used as a decision-making framework. Provide details about users, goals, tasks, and environment. Don’t provide a solution because figuring out the best solution is the entire point of the scenario. And don’t declare that the user is thrilled because a feature exists. Provide the details for what it would take to thrill the user instead."
"When he was asked about doing consumer research during his time at Braun, he simply said, “Never. We wanted to change the world."
"The art of reduction is not just “cutting things”. The cutting is merely the reduction part. The art of reduction is cutting away what is not essential, and adding detail to what is."
"I believe that introducing visceral elements into an app will take it past the point of just being awesome. It will make your app speak to the subconscious, built-in affinity that humans have for the physical properties I mentioned before. I believe that even if you designed the most perfect and useful app possible, that the act of adding in these visceral elements will make people love your app on an even deeper level."
"Show your product to 5 people. Don’t explain it. Just watch. Ask them to talk through what they are thinking. Watch them try to figure out what your product is all about. Watch them skim, click, dismiss. Watch them ignore your new feature. Watch them try to get direct answers to basic questions. Watch them fail to see your save button (which is inexplicably suddenly more hidden than a forgotten sock left in the dryer or the lost sunglasses on the top of your head). Watch them get bored with the burden of trying to find something they actually want from your product."
"设计过程中如何做决策，美的标准是什么，我借用一下《data visualization》一书中的观点：novel （创新)， informative (这里可以理解为否实现设计的功能，传达出需要传达的信息）, efficient （能否有效地达成设计诉求）, aesthetic （是否有视觉魅力）。受众、目标和情境是设计开始之前必须回答的问题，一个不能保障可用性（有效达成目标，满足需求，适配于使用情境）的设计，再好看再创新也是失败的。"
"Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven’t asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It hits your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question — you have to want to know — in order to open up the space for the answer to fit."
"所以，新鲜事的繁荣也可能是一种误导。摄影组图的特性导致发表与转发的比例可能是1∶20，优质内容发现还算强大，但关注用户之间从“脸熟”变成了“面生”，关注之后很少在新鲜事看见对方的作品，更别提互评互踩。结果用户关系无从加强，关注只是一个数字，缺乏数字背后的交情。用户看图固然爽，评论的数量和质量却大大降低了，作者得不到足够的鼓励，社区的天花板自然抬不上去。"
"第一，社区是急不来的，只能慢慢养，大规模推广对社区基本起不到正面效果。第二，做社区最重要的事情是人靠谱，尤其是靠谱的人占到大多数，让用户产生社群认同感，愿意跟别人互动，愿意重视别人跟自己的互动。非目标用户占比超过30%则举步维艰。"
