17 April 2005 - form designer

The hallmarks of IRS form design are simplicity, clarity, and accountability. Simplicity means the people you are designing for are simpletons, so it’s useless to explain anything to them. Clarity means you have to give them instructions anyway, avoiding any step more complex than “add lines 1, 7, 13, and 249”. Accountability means throwing in document references that even an accountant has to look up, such as “enter the value from line 19 of Form 9753” or “see Pub. 666 for detailed instructions”.