As Much Trouble as It’s Worth
A quick thought about design as sleight of hand.
In an article for Smithsonian magazine, renowned magician Teller (of the duo Penn & Teller) offers a handful of guiding principles for altering an audience’s perceptions. This one is my favorite:
Make the secret a lot more trouble than the trick seems worth. You will be fooled by a trick if it involves more time, money and practice than you (or any other sane onlooker) would be willing to invest.
This is the stuff great design is made of: lavishing a totally unreasonable amount of attention on even the most seemingly insignificant details.