All Eyes on Simplicity

Simplicity has become a revived buzzword as of lately. Ironically, it’s been advocated since before the days of personal computers. Simplicity got lost in the “enterprisiness” of the 90s, but has been given a second life.The latest issue of Technology Review is dedicated to design, which is impossible to cover without a discussion on simplicity.

Jason Pontin, On Beautiful Machines:

”[…] Well-designed machines, whether they have few or many functions, should be minimally complicated. That is, they should have no more functions than is reasonable given their form; every function should be no more complicated than it needs to be; and the way each function works should be intuitively easy to understand. As Albert Einstein may have said, “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

Donald Norman, whose name you already encountered in Attractive Things Work Better, is quoted saying:

“The hardest part of design, especially consumer electronics, is keeping features out. Simplicity is in itself a product differentiator, and pursuing it can lead to innovation.”