The first secret of design is ... noticing

In the great 1980s movie Blues Brothers,

there's a scene where John Belushi

goes to visit Dan Aykroyd in his apartment

in Chicago for the very first time.

It's a cramped, tiny space

and it's just three feet away
from the train tracks.

As John sits on Dan's bed,

the train goes rushing by,

rattling everything in the room.

John asks, "How often does
that train go by?"

Dan replies, "So often, you won't
even notice it."

And then, something falls off the wall.

We all know what he's talking about.

As human beings, we get used
to everyday things --

really fast.

As a product designer,

it's my job to see those everyday things,

to feel them,

and try to improve upon them.

For example, see this piece of fruit?

See this little sticker?

That sticker wasn't there when
I was a kid.

But somewhere as the years past,

someone had the bright idea
to put the sticker on the fruit.

Why?

So it could be easier for us
to check out

at the grocery counter.

Well that's great,

we can get in and out of
the store quickly.

But now, there's a new problem.

When we get home and we're hungry

and we see this ripe, juicy piece of fruit

on the counter,

we just want to pick it up
and eat it.

Except now,

we have to look for this little sticker.

And dig at it with our nails,

damaging the flesh.

Then rolling up that sticker --

you know what I mean.

And then trying to flick
it off your fingers.

(Applause)

It's not fun,

not at all.

But something interesting happened.

See the first time you did it,

you probably felt those feelings,

you just want to eat the piece of fruit,

but it was--

you felt upset.

You just wanted to dive in.

By the tenth time,

you started to become less, less upset

and you just started peeling
the label off.

by the hundredth time,

at least for me,

I became numb to it.

I simply picked up the piece of fruit,

dig at it with my nails,

and flicked it off.

and then wonder,

"Was there another sticker?"

So why is that?

Why do we get used to everyday things?

Well as human beings,

we have limited brain power.

And so our brains encode the everyday
things we do into habits

so we can free up space
to learn new things.

It's a process called habituation

and it's one of the most basic ways
as humans we learn.

Now, habituation isn't always bad.

Remember learning to drive?

I sure do.

Your hands clenched at 10 and 2
on the wheel,

looking at every single object out there,

the cars, the lights, the pedestrians.

It's a nerve-wracking experience.

So much so, that I couldn't even
talk to anyone else in the car

and I couldn't even listen to music.

But then something interesting happened.

As the weeks went by,

driving became easier.

You habituated it.

It started to become
fun and second nature.

And then, you could talk
to your friends again

and listen to music.

So there's a good reason why
our brains habituate things.

If we didn't,

we'd notice every little detail
all the time.

It would be exhausting,

and we'd have no time
to learn about new things.

But sometimes,

habituation isn't good

if it stops us from noticing the problems
that are around us,

that's bad.

If it stops us from noticing
and fixing those problems,

well then that's really bad.

Comedians know all about this.

Jerry Seinfeld's entire career was built
on noticing those little details,

those idiotic things we do everyday

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.

He just wanted a comfortable shower.

Now, we've all been there.

we just don't remember it.

Jerry did,

and that's a comedian's job.

But designers, innovators
and entrepreneurs,

it's our job to not just notice
those things,

but to go one step further

and try to fix them.

See this, this person,

this is Mary Anderson.

In 1902 in New York City,

she was visiting.

it was a cold, wet, snowy day

and she was warm inside a street car.

As she was going to her destination,

she noticed the driver opening the window

to clean off the excess snow
so he could drive safely.

When he opened the window, though,

he let all this cold, wet air inside,

making all the passengers miserable.

Now probably, most of those
passengers thought,

"It's a fact of life,

he's got to open the window to clean it.

That's just how it is."

But Mary didn't.

Mary thought,

"What if the diver could actually
clean the windshield

from the inside

so that he could stay safe and drive

and the passengers could actually
stay warm?"

So she picked up her sketch book
right then and there,

and began drawing what would become

the world's first windshield wiper.

Now as a product designer,

I try to learn from people like Mary

to try to see the world the way
it really is,

not the way we think it is.

Why?

Because it's easy to solve a problem

that almost everyone sees.

But it's hard to solve a problem

that almost no one sees.

Now some people think that
you're born with this ability

or you're not,

as if Mary Anderson was hardwired
at birth

to see the world differently.

That wasn't the case for me.

I had to work at it.

During my years at Apple,

Steve Jobs challenged us