FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS

In May 2020, I had the opportunity to visit LinkedIn headquarters with Gavin. As I walked into a corridor, I immediately noticed a simple phrase on the wall: FOCUS ON WHAT MATTERS

My first reaction was simple: “It’s just a slogan on a wall.” But as I kept walking, something felt off. The words did not behave like a flat sign. They felt like they were positioned very close to my face, almost like they were on invisible glass in front of me.

Only later did I understand what was happening. The phrase was not placed on a single flat surface. Instead, it was carefully distributed across the entire corridor: left wall, right wall, floor, ceiling, and the far end wall. Each surface contained only fragments of the phrase. But when standing in the center, the brain automatically reconstructs them into a single unified message. This creates a strong perceptual illusion: the words appear to float in front of you.

We think we are reading text.

But in reality, we are reconstructing space.

Attention is not passive reception of information. It is active assembly of fragmented perception.

Good design does not simply display meaning. It designs how meaning is perceived.

Focus on what matters. Or maybe just enough to notice how it works. 🙂