What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.

People are time bound entities transitioning from cradle to grave. Any “solved problem” that involves human beings solves a problem whose parameters must change through time.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.

The craftman’s desire for quality poses a motivational danger: the obsession with getting things perfectly right may deform the work itself. We are more likely to fail as craftsmen, I argue, due to our inability to organize obsession than because of our lack of ability.

Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.

Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.

I apologize for writing you a long letter but I didn’t have time to write a short one.

Design principles are the guiding light for any software application. They define and communicate the key characteristics of the product to a wide variety of stakeholders including clients, colleagues, and team members. Design principles articulate the fundamental goals that all decisions can be measured against and thereby keep the pieces of a project moving toward an integrated whole.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Design is knowing which ones to keep.