Evidence

Format Web Page

"Ethereum’s own research roadmap treats improving design and user experience as necessary for onboarding more people."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY User eXperience Is Not a Design Artifact

Source title Active areas of Ethereum research

Source authors ethereum.org

Source year 2026

Confidence high

Importance high

Format Web Page

"Steve Jobs argued that product development should start with customer experience and work backwards to technology."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY User eXperience Is Not a Design Artifact

Source title WWDC Closing Chat

Source authors Steve Jobs

Source year 1997

Confidence high

Importance high

Format Web Page

"Sinofsky says Microsoft’s Office PDF export was built from Adobe’s published open specification while Microsoft still prepared for regulatory and intellectual-property challenges."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title 081. First Feedback and a Surprise

Source authors Steven Sinofsky

Source year 2022

Confidence high

Importance mid

Format Web Page

"Sinofsky recalls that Microsoft’s Publisher team implemented PDF support across Office applications while the company navigated legal, regulatory, antitrust, and intellectual-property concerns."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title 081. First Feedback and a Surprise

Source authors Steven Sinofsky

Source year 2022

Confidence high

Importance high

Format Web Page

"In Steven Sinofsky’s account, Office 12 added Save As PDF after competitors already supported PDF export and Office was receiving more than 30,000 comments per week requesting it."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title 081. First Feedback and a Surprise

Source authors Steven Sinofsky

Source year 2022

Confidence high

Importance mid

Format Online paper / PDF

"As of February 2025, seven of ten critical federal legacy-system modernizations identified by GAO in 2019 were still incomplete, and the longest ongoing effort was expected to take ten years."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title Information Technology: Agencies Need to Plan for Modernizing Critical Decades-Old Legacy Systems

Source authors U.S. Government Accountability Office

Source year 2025

Confidence high

Importance high

Format Online paper / PDF

"In 2025, GAO identified 11 critical federal legacy IT systems in need of modernization that were approximately 23 to 60 years old."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title Information Technology: Agencies Need to Plan for Modernizing Critical Decades-Old Legacy Systems

Source authors U.S. Government Accountability Office

Source year 2025

Confidence high

Importance high

Format Web Page

"WordPress explicitly prioritizes preserving backward compatibility across versions and production public APIs."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title Backward Compatibility

Source authors WordPress.org

Source year 2026

Confidence high

Importance high

Format Web Page

"WordPress is used by 40.2% of all websites in W3Techs’ 30 September 2026 survey."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title Comparison of the usage statistics of WordPress vs. WP eCommerce for websites

Source authors W3Techs

Source year 2026

Confidence high

Importance high

Format Online paper / PDF

"In Boudreau’s study of 21 handheld computing systems, greater platform access for independent hardware developers was associated with up to a fivefold acceleration in new-device development."

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Location PART 2 - FOUR HIDDEN CHIMNEYS CHAPTER 10: BUILDING-BLOCK REALITY Blocks Tend to Stick Around

Source title Open Platform Strategies and Innovation: Granting Access versus Devolving Control

Source authors Kevin Boudreau

Source year 2010

Confidence high

Importance high