Field Notes / 08
Stop Designing for the Next Exit
Software keeps treating attention as a lane to clear. The better route leaves room for people to decide where they are going.
Last winter, I mapped every prompt in our permitting tool. Forty-two of them arrived before a person had seen the street, the plan, or the consequence. We had made speed feel like care, then called the resulting confusion efficient.
Direction is not the same as pressure
Highway signs do not bargain for your attention. They name the exit, set the distance, and let you keep driving. Our next release removed three interruptions and replaced them with one clear marker: what changed, where it lives, and when to return.