The payoff of a customer-centric approach to software and digital product design is substantial and long-lasting for both companies and their customers. Alan Cooper More Quotes by Alan Cooper More Quotes From Alan Cooper It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets. Alan Cooper discipline technology example One of the most heinous, insidious lies is the notion that you have to be an asshole to be a successful business person. Alan Cooper entrepreneur successful lying We don't fight about music. We don't fight about artistic direction. The things like that we could fight about, we really don't. We are pretty lucky for that. Alan Cooper artistic lucky fighting We seem to be keeping old fans and are bringing on new fans that are teenagers. I think that is amazing. When I was a teenager, that was when I fell in love with music. It affected me in a deep way. That's why I love having teenagers at our shows. Alan Cooper teenager thinking While making art you should just do what is in your heart. Alan Cooper heart art I just like so many different kinds of music that I like experimenting. I don't want to keep making the same record over and over and over. I'm an 'evolve or die' kind of a musician. I think it's cool to try new things. Alan Cooper musician trying thinking If you are not going to produce albums then you are not going to produce new fans. It's impossible. I'm a huge believer in putting music out as quickly as early as possible, touring hard and then working on putting the next one out. I don't need to break. I just need to put a record out. Alan Cooper believer break impossible Because computers have memories, we imagine that they must be something like our human memories, but that is simply not true. Computer memories work in a manner alien to human memories. My memory lets me recognize the faces of my friends, whereas my own computer never even recognizes me. My computer's memory stores a million phone numbers with perfect accuracy, but I have to stop and think to recall my own. Alan Cooper phones memories thinking Past dreams of bliss our lives contain, And slight the chords that still retain A heart estranged to joys again, To scenes by memory's silver chain Close-linked, and ever yet apart, That like the vine, whose tendrils young Around some fostering branch have clung, Grown with its growth, as tho' it sprung From one united heart. Alan Cooper dream heart memories 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. Alan Cooper cool you technology business We're building what I call 'software apartheid.' We're in the process of creating a divided society: those who can use technology on one side, and those who can't on the other. And it happens to divide neatly along economic lines. Alan Cooper building society technology process I think the phrase 'computer-literate' is an evil phrase. You don't have to be 'automobile-literate' to get along in this world. You don't have to be 'telephone-literate.' Why should you have to be 'computer-literate'? Alan Cooper think you evil world I have a cell phone that doesn't behave like a phone: It behaves like a computer that makes calls. Computers are becoming an integral part of daily life. And if people don't start designing them to be more user-friendly, then an even larger part of the population is going to be left out of even more stuff. Alan Cooper daily cell-phone life people Design is not so much a design issue as a power struggle. Alan Cooper much design power struggle 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. Alan Cooper goals human real opportunity A lot of people think, and Microsoft is happy to let them think, that all great things are invented by Microsoft. In fact, very, very little has been invented by Microsoft. Alan Cooper great think happy people What Microsoft is really good at is endlessly iterating and revving - incrementally improving things that already exist - and those things that already exist are generally acquired from the outside. Alan Cooper outside things good microsoft E-mail is the most influential application ever to appear on a personal computer, and it remains sadly deficient. Alan Cooper ever personal most application
