“Wouldn’t it be cool…” and other bad design approaches
summary
Argues that tech-first choices cause real waste: the F-35 program spends about a trillion dollars and ends up admitting its touch-screen cockpit misfires (pilots often think they toggled controls when they did not). Points to Microsoft’s Story Remix (2017) feature—explosive effects buried in Photos—plus a modern web rewrite that is slower than the AS/400 it replaced. Shows a radiology redesign that embeds image snapshots and drives ~$400M in sales, and flags "Wouldn’t it be cool if..." as a red flag for bad design.
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chapters (24)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:10Design failures in teams
- 2:15F-35 cockpit disaster
- 4:01Developers love cool tech
- 6:28'Wouldn't it be cool if'
- 8:15Cool over usability
- 10:02Story Remix: Unwanted feature
- 15:44Cool features frustrate users
- 17:09Windows 8 cautionary tale
- 21:45Clever Hans effect
- 23:57Copying designs poorly
- 25:033M Radiology app success
- 28:58Hawaii missile alert failure
- 31:06Lazy data-heavy interfaces
- 33:55Browser apps not always best
- 35:19Good design reduces training
- 36:44Prototyping and usability testing
- 38:30Design theater pitfalls
- 42:23Users know their jobs
- 44:13Coding over design
- 47:04MVP iteration limits
- 48:30Windows 8 folders flaw
- 51:47Beyond aesthetics
- 55:18Summary
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