Designed for Use, 2nd Edition

Space

Although we are able to understand reasonably obvious, intuitive hierarchies such as family structures and the logic governing where a store puts stuff, we’re not really good at coming up with hierarchies for most other things. We typically don’t arrange the stuff we own in a deeply hierarchical fashion. Sure, you may put all of your dinnerware into one cupboard and all of your kitchenware into another, but that’s hardly a hierarchy. Instead, you’re arranging things in space, putting related things next to each other. You don’t remember where to find your plates by any kind of hierarchy. Instead, you remember where to find your plates because you know where you put them.

Similarly, your desk may be a huge mess, but you’ll probably have ...