Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design

Chapter 1. Defining the Obvious

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• What Is ‘the Obvious’?

• How Do You Design the Obvious?

• The Framework for Obvious Design

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Recently, while explaining over dinner what I do for a living, the people around me began relating horror stories about Web sites and software, complaining about the difficult experiences they have every single day with so-called productivity tools.

For one person, it was one of those new-fangled accounting packages that’s supposed to make the job of managing client and employee records more cost-effective. For another, it was a library catalog. Hors d’oeuvres were passed around. Jokes were made. Drinks were refilled.

With each complaint, the voices grew louder. Everyone began speaking over each other, cutting ...