Why product design is like writing a recipe

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While reading a cookbook recently I realized the goal of the cookbook author is not entirely different than a product designer. In both roles, the designer and author, there is a need to anticipate the needs and knowledge of the user, and design around those needs within the constraints of their knowledge. There is also a parallel here between the engineer and the professional chef. Both have much more knowledge than the end user, and rarely understand how their user will be using the product they are creating. If you've ever read a cookbook actually written by a professional chef (as opposed to a professional cookbook author), you've probably not understood many of the terms or known what many of the ingredients were. If you did understand everything, then either you're either an experienced chef, or the book was likely co-written with a writer who specializes in cookbooks. User-Focused Design It's not that different with engineers working on a product to be sold to consumers. If you're a computer programmer selling a product to a computer programmer, maybe you can get away with designing it. If you're a computer programmer selling to a consumer, you probably need someone to guide…

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