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Multiple menus, none of which contain all the things I’m looking for. Vague nomenclature that means I have to click on five or six menu items to find the one simple (simple to me, anyway) thing I want. Hidden contact info. Web forms that allow me to accidentally cancel out after I’ve spent ten minutes entering information. Puzzling visuals that obscure the tools I need. All of these are relentlessly common in digital interactions. Why is doing what I need…

Everything has a user experience. A hammer, a car, a ski lift: using it is easy and pleasant and intuitive, or it’s clumsy and hard to figure out and anxiety-producing, or (most often) it’s somewhere in between. An apartment door is hinged on the outside and you can’t open it fully without backing up and taking a step down the stairs. The SUBMIT button on the web form is on the left instead of the right, and a sizable number…