Sherlock Holmes’ famous reference to “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Silver Blaze” may be overworked as a metaphor by now, but in the realm of product design, seeing that which is obviously missing is an ageless challenge. It’s true, of course, that Holmes noticing that a dog did not bark when it should have is a lot easier than envisioning a design improvement that hasn’t happened yet, but nonetheless, everyone must admit to encountering a design innovation for the first time and thinking: why didn’t someone think of that sooner? It is so obvious.