Let's forget computers for a while and think about good ol' pen and paper. Ask yourself these questions:
Do you use a desk?
Do you use paper?
Do you use folders?
How big is your desk?
How do you keep the papers on your desk?
Do you hold up one sheet to read and one sheet exclusively?
Do you keep a bunch of sheets side-by-side and compare them to each other?
Do you like to open folders repeatedly or open a few papers from each folder?
No amount of design innovation can suppress the quirks and foibles of human nature. Quite often, aesthetic engineering survives an encounter with a user just as well as a battle plan does while encountering the enemy.
