Up at 3:30 A.M. to catch my 5:30 A.M. flight to Phoenix by way of Toronto. Walking through modern airports reinforces my belief that most things aren’t designed by people who actually use them. Hence we have airports with kilometer-long corridors that older (and younger) people have to struggle to traverse with their luggage and various disabilities. Or maybe its just that design follows the money and not the customer! The mistake of course is that….the customer is the money!

Perhaps that’s unfair. Let’s say that when you are an “expert” in building something, it becomes increasingly difficult to relate to the non-expert who will use it, because you lose sight of the gap between your knowledge and the other person’s. Note for example, how easy it is to find a place when you’ve been there before, vs. how hard it was the first time. Then, someone asks you for directions and you give him what to you seem like perfectly clear instructions…but he gets lost just the same.