The first secret of great design

As human beings, we get used to “the way things are” very quickly. For designers, that habit is an opportunity: could things be better, and how?

In this TED talk from 2015, Tony Fadell, co-inventor of the iPod and the iPhone and founder and former CEO of Nest Labs, shares some of his tips for noticing, and driving, change. The talk is short, funny and breezy, and centres on learning to see the small annoyances that people have stopped noticing.

The idea that people stop seeing what they experience every day is closely related to hedonic adaptation, and it is one reason why small, well-placed delighters can make a product stand out.