Applied Intelligence: From Lat. applicare (“attach to, join, connect”, literally ad-plicare “fold into”) and intellegere (“dicern, understand” lit. “picking up/reading in between”). Applied Intelligence is the inter-subjective thought that goes into matter when we work, shaping form until it becomes what it is, meaning real. Unlike the user who typically sees a tool from the I-perspective as long as the tool works as expected, designers think from the perspective of those who use them. We try to think as much as we can from other users’ perspectives. Applying intelligence is our job. Obviously, avoiding the shame of being identified as not-so-intelligent when things break or don’t work as expected is part of our motivation to pay extra care when applying our intelligence. Applied Intelligence is the core quality of a functional interface. Not to be mistaken for Artificial Intelligence.