The Magic Point.
A friend has a phrase that I’ve adopted over the years, ‘The Magic Point’, meaning “the point at which your understanding of how a device works falls apart, and you say start explaining the outcome rather than the process.”
For example: Most people have a magic point with a computer, that starts at hitting the ‘on’ button. They can tell you how to DO things with the machine, but not explain HOW those things are being done.
The majority of the time this phrase is used, it indicates a gap in knowledge. But I’m beginning the think the magic point is a good thing.
Hitting that point is becoming beyond the realm of needing explanation. Once a technology descends below the magic point for 99% of the world, it is invisible - the same way no one notices the wheel as technology.
In the correct context, requiring explanation is, at core, a failure of design.
Aim for the magic point, and you can create an experience that completely ignores the “how”, and focuses entirely on the “what”.
