A long time ago a software engineer advised me to try and ensure that I made my interfaces clear to users, especially those that are busy focusing on some other task the software enables. The phrase he used was to make a "Fisher-Price" interface, referring to the toy company that makes big and brightly colored buttons for their toys. The idea being that we didn't want to cram too many things on the screen or possibly confuse a user.

As a kid, I watched Mr. Roger's Neighborhood on television and enjoyed the show. Lots of kids had a similar view, but they might not have known that the main actor took care in choosing his words to convey concepts and ideas to children. In fact, the former producer said that the writers joked that his manner of speaking was its own language, called "Freddish."

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