The first secret of great design | Tony Fadell

When the iPod was released, almost every battery-powered product required customers to charge it before first use ('Charge before use' label), which created frustration for eager new users who wanted immediate gratification.

“And then, there was another little sticker: the one that said, 'Charge before use.' What! I can't believe it! I just spent all this time buying this product and now I have to charge before use. I have to wait what felt like an eternity to use that coveted new toy. It was crazy. But you know what? Almost every product back then did that. When it had batteries in it, you had to charge it before you used it.”

In the 1900s thermostats were simple (turn up or down), but in the 1970s during the energy crisis, designers added a programming step so users could specify desired temperatures at certain times, assuming this would help people save energy.

“Take thermostats, for instance. In the 1900s when they first came out, they were really simple to use. You could turn them up or turn them down. People understood them. But in the 1970s, the energy crisis struck, and customers started thinking about how to save energy. So what happened? Thermostat designers decided to add a new step. Instead of just turning up and down, you now had to program it. So you could tell it the temperature you wanted at a certain time.”

The central challenge each person should face daily is 'How can I experience the world better?' which is the path to noticing and solving invisible problems and removing frustrating design elements like the fruit stickers.

“Our challenge is to wake up each day and say, 'How can I experience the world better?' And if we do, maybe, just maybe, we can get rid of these dumb little stickers.”

The ability to see problems that most people don't notice is not an innate talent you're born with, but rather a skill that must be learned and practiced through deliberate effort.

“Now some people think you're born with this ability or you're not, as if Mary Anderson was hardwired at birth to see the world more clearly. That wasn't the case for me. I had to work at it.”

The first technique to fight habituation is to 'look broader' at the entire process and all the steps that lead to and follow a problem, which may allow you to change, combine, or remove steps before the problem occurs.

“My first tip is to look broader. You see, when you're tackling a problem, sometimes, there are a lot of steps that lead up to that problem. And sometimes, a lot of steps after it. If you can take a step back and look broader, maybe you can change some of those boxes before the problem. Maybe you can combine them. Maybe you can remove them altogether to make that better.”

The 'look closer' technique involves examining small details and asking whether they are actually important or merely reflect 'the way we've always done it,' with the possibility of eliminating unnecessary elements.

“So if we focus on those tiny details, the ones we may not see and we look at them as we say, 'Are those important or is that the way we've always done it? Maybe there's a way to get rid of those.'”

Despite designers adding programmable thermostats in the 1970s energy crisis, people saved no energy because they couldn't predict future weather patterns and how their weekly schedules would change seasonally and yearly, making the programming step ineffective.

“Now that seemed great. Every thermostat had started adding that feature. But it turned out that no one saved any energy. Now, why is that? Well, people couldn't predict the future. They just didn't know how their weeks would change season to season, year to year. So no one was saving energy.”

Young people and children can ask many questions about why things are the way they are, and sometimes reveal that adults don't have good answers, instead saying 'That's just the way the world works,' but children haven't habituated to these things and so they immediately try to solve problems they encounter.

“So, they can ask tons of questions and sometimes we find out we just don't have the right answers. We say, 'Son, that's just the way the world works.' So the more we're exposed to something, the more we get used to it. But kids haven't been around long enough to get used to those things. And so when they run into problems, they immediately try to solve them, and sometimes they find a better way, and that way really is better.”

During his years at Apple, Steve Jobs instructed product teams to 'stay beginners' by seeing products through the eyes of new customers with their fears, frustrations, and hopeful expectations, focusing on tiny details to make products faster, easier, and seamless for first-time users.

“During my years at Apple, Steve Jobs challenged us to come into work every day, to see our products through the eyes of the customer, the new customer, the one that has fears and possible frustrations and hopeful exhilaration that their new technology product could work straightaway for them. He called it staying beginners, and wanted to make sure that we focused on those tiny little details to make them faster, easier and seamless for the new customers.”

The speaker's son asked why the mailbox doesn't check itself and notify the family when mail arrives, which the speaker recognized as a genuinely insightful question that adults typically don't ask because they've habituated to the standard mailbox design.

“My son came to me the other day and I asked him, 'Go run out to the mailbox and check it.' He looked at me, puzzled, and said, 'Why doesn't the mailbox just check itself and tell us when it has mail?' (Laughter) I was like, 'That's a pretty good question.'”

After the three-screw solution failed, the team designed a custom screw that worked for multiple wall types, eliminating the need for customers to choose between different options, despite initial investor skepticism about spending resources on 'just a little screw.'

“So we shipped the product, and people weren't having a great experience. So what did we do? We went back to the drawing board just instantly after we figured out we didn't get it right. And we designed a special screw, a custom screw, much to the chagrin of our investors. They were like, 'Why are you spending so much time on a little screw? Get out there and sell more!' And we said, 'We will sell more if we get this right.' And it turned out, we did.”

The third technique to fight habituation is to 'think younger' by incorporating young people on teams or people with young minds, because children and those with fresh perspectives haven't been habituated to accept things as they are and immediately try to solve problems they encounter.

“So my last piece of advice is to think younger. Every day, I'm confronted with interesting questions from my three young kids. They come up with questions like, 'Why can't cars fly around traffic?' Or, 'Why don't my shoelaces have Velcro instead?' Sometimes, those questions are smart.”

Fruit stickers added to produce for ease of checkout at grocery stores represent a design solution that created a new friction problem for consumers at home trying to eat the fruit.

“See this piece of fruit? See this little sticker? That sticker wasn't there when I was a kid. But somewhere as the years passed, someone had the bright idea to put that sticker on the fruit. Why? So it could be easier for us to check out at the grocery counter.”

Picasso said 'Every child is an artist; the problem is when he or she grows up, is how to remain an artist,' suggesting that maintaining a childlike creative perspective through adulthood is a challenge worth pursuing.

“Picasso once said, 'Every child is an artist. The problem is when he or she grows up, is how to remain an artist.'”

All humans saw the world more clearly when they saw it for the first time, before a lifetime of habits got in the way, and the challenge is to get back there, to feel that frustration, see the little details, look broader, look closer, and think younger so we can stay beginners.

“We all saw the world more clearly when we saw it for the first time, before a lifetime of habits got in the way. Our challenge is to get back there, to feel that frustration, to see those little details, to look broader, look closer, and to think younger so we can stay beginners.”

Seeing invisible problems, not just the obvious ones, is important not only for product design but for everything we do, because there are invisible problems all around us that we can solve if we first learn to see and feel them.

“So why am I telling you this? Well, it's seeing the invisible problem, not just the obvious problem, that's important, not just for product design, but for everything we do. You see, there are invisible problems all around us, ones we can solve. But first we need to see them, to feel them.”

The speaker's team initially included three different screws in a product package, thinking this would solve installation problems across different wall types, but this solution failed to provide a good customer experience.

“So what did we do? I remembered that story that my grandfather told me, and so we thought, 'How many different screws can we put in the box? Was it going to be two, three, four, five? Because there's so many different wall types.' So we thought about it, we optimized it, and we came up with three different screws to put in the box. We thought that was going to solve the problem. But it turned out, it didn't.”

With the custom screw solution, the product only required one screw in the box that was easy to mount and apply to the wall, providing a seamless user experience.

“With that custom little screw, there was just one screw in the box, that was easy to mount and put on the wall.”

The recommendation is to have young people on your team or people with young minds, because young minds cause everyone in the room to think younger and challenge habitual assumptions.

“So my advice that we take to heart is to have young people on your team, or people with young minds. Because if you have those young minds, they cause everyone in the room to think younger.”

Fighting habituation and staying beginners is not easy because it requires pushing back against one of the most basic ways humans make sense of the world, but if we do, we can accomplish amazing things.

“It's not easy. It requires us pushing back against one of the most basic ways we make sense of the world. But if we do, we could do some pretty amazing things.”

For the speaker, fighting habituation leads to better product design, but for others, it could enable other powerful achievements and accomplishments.

“For me, hopefully, that's better product design. For you, that could mean something else, something powerful.”

Comedians like Jerry Seinfeld build their careers on noticing small, everyday frustrations that everyone experiences but has habituated to—like shower temperature adjustment difficulties—that designers and innovators should then work to solve rather than accept as givens.

“Comedians know all about this. Jerry Seinfeld's entire career was built on noticing those little details, those idiotic things we do every day that we don't even remember. He tells us about the time he visited his friends and he just wanted to take a comfortable shower. He'd reach out and grab the handle and turn it slightly one way, and it was 100 degrees too hot. And then he'd turn it the other way, and it was 100 degrees too cold.”

The 'look broader' technique applies universally: when tackling any problem, examine all the process boxes and steps involved, and identify opportunities to remove or combine steps to simplify the overall process.

“So, it doesn't matter what you're doing. If you take a step back and look at all the boxes, maybe there's a way to remove one or combine them so that you can make that process much simpler.”

The second technique to fight habituation is to 'look closer' at small details and examine the fine-grained aspects of design that might otherwise be overlooked, as modeled by the speaker's grandfather who taught that selecting the right tool (like the right screw type) for the right job is essential to success.

“For my second tip, it's to look closer. One of my greatest teachers was my grandfather. He taught me all about the world. He taught me how things were built and how they were repaired, the tools and techniques necessary to make a successful project. I remember one story he told me about screws, and about how you need to have the right screw for the right job.”