Design is only silent when it's working

Four buses got stuck in a roundabout in Oslo recently.

Nobody was talking about roundabout design the day before. But the moment those buses gridlocked, each blocking the other's exit, suddenly everyone became a traffic design expert.

That's the cruel irony of design:
When it works, it's invisible. When it fails, it's all anyone can see.
Your phone's interface? You navigate it thousands of times without thinking. But crash once and suddenly you're very aware of every design choice. Your favorite app? Seamless until that one button doesn't work, then it's all you can focus on.

Good design disappears into the background. Bad design screams for attention.

Those Oslo buses weren't broken, they followed their routes perfectly. The system worked exactly as programmed. But nobody designed for what happens when the system encounters itself.

That's when I realized: the best design solves problems you never knew existed. The worst design creates problems everyone suddenly notices.
Design is only silent when it's working.

Image credit: Endre Helgeland

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