Complexity

Simplicity in Your Mind

"There is increasing interest in the simplification of information technology (IT). The IT industry is recognizing the need to simplify software technology as businesses express their increased interest in governing the return on their IT investments. Two goals are surfacing as explicit mandates to which all software vendors are responding: (1) lowering the skills required of software users and (2) increasing their productivity. Although this simplification mandate is most essential to small- and medium-sized businesses, where people with high-end technical skills may not be affordable, an awareness of the damage complexity inflicts on users is spreading to the enterprise market as well. Commoditization pressures make it necessary for the IT industry to reduce skills requirements as well as service and maintenance costs." (Lucinio Santos - UXmatters)

Posted on May 08, 2008 | Permalink

Simplicity Patterns

"The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art -- a place that can get very complicated. Here, he talks about paring down to basics, and how he creates clean, elegant art, websites and web tools. In his book Laws of Simplicity, he offers 10 rules and 3 keys for simple living and working -- but in this talk, he boils it down to one simply delightful way to be." (TED: Ideas worth spreading) - courtesy of digitalwebmagazine

Posted on September 24, 2007 | Permalink

The Architecture of Complexity: Albert-László Barabási

"(...) apparently unrelated networks behave in similar ways and have similar structures – they're the result of similar laws. This knowledge allows us to have common thinking about networks. But many questions remain. How are the networks used? What are the dynamics of how they’re being used at the smallest scale?" (Albert-László Barabási - ASIS&T Bulletin Feb/Mar 2007)

Posted on March 02, 2007 | Permalink

Simplicity: The Distribution of Complexity

"Achieving simplicity is not that simple when you are dealing with complex modern device design. Rob Tannen mused on lazy shortcuts, artificial constraints and Maeda's crusade on the complex." (Rob Tannen - Boxes and Arrows)

Posted on January 31, 2007 | Permalink

Simplicity

"Devotees of simplicity will bring up 37signals and the Apple iPod as anecdotal proof that Simple Sells. I would argue that in both these cases, success is a result of a combination of things: building an audience, evangelism, clean and spare design, emotional appeal, aesthetics, fast response time, direct and instant user feedback, program models which correspond to the user model resulting in high usability, and putting the user in control, all of which are features of one sort, in the sense that they are benefits that customers like and pay for, but none of which can really be described as 'simplicity'." (Joel Spolsky)

Posted on December 11, 2006 | Permalink

The Complexity of Simplicity

"Though many business strategies and publications continue to trumpet the power of simplicity in the design of digital products, for lots of companies and product teams, simplicity doesn’t come easy." (Luke Wroblewski - UXmatters)

Posted on December 04, 2006 | Permalink

Presentations and the 'Laws of Simplicity'

"John Maeda's book, The Laws of Simplicity, is a good quick read. I love the clear presentation of the ideas in the book and the fact that the author imposed a limit of 100 pages for himself, an idea consistent with his Third Law: 'Savings in time feels like simplicity'. This book is not the final word on the topic of, of course, and in fact more is to come soon on the topic by MIT press." (Garr Reynolds - Presentation Zen)

Posted on November 28, 2006 | Permalink

The Laws of Simplicity

"(..) we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte 'Read Me' manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up." (John Maeda)

Posted on September 01, 2006 | Permalink

Simplicity demands difficult choices

"Too much web management suffers from trying to be all things to all people. Apple and Google have triumphed from targeting common tasks." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted on July 10, 2006 | Permalink

The Beauty of Simplicity

"Marissa Mayer, who keeps Google's home page pure, understands that less is more. Other tech companies are starting to get it, too. Here's why making things simple is the new competitive advantage." (Fast Company)

Posted on January 19, 2006 | Permalink

The Truth About Google's so-called 'simplicity'

"The truth? It isn't simple." (Donald A. Norman) - courtesy of usabilityviews

Posted on September 16, 2005 | Permalink

Simplicity is hard work

"I'm sure that within Philips there is a genuine belief that it is important to make their products as simple as possible to use. However, there is a big difference between marketing your products as simple to use and making them genuinely simple." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted on August 14, 2005 | Permalink

First and Second Law of Simplicity

"(1) A complex system of many functions can be simplified by carefully grouping related functions. (2) The positive emotional response derived from a simplicity experience has less to do with utility, and more to do with saving time." (John Maeda - Simplicity)

Posted on March 11, 2005 | Permalink

Achieving greater simplicity involves managing increasing complexity

"Never before has there been so much to choose from, and never before has it been more important to eliminate most of these choices." (Gerry McGovern)

Posted on November 21, 2004 | Permalink

Make it simple

"The Next Big Thing is not a thing at all: it is simplicity. - In the 90s they [IT companies] operated under the principle, 'build it and they will come' - even if it was too complex and would never be implemented, they would build it! That has changed." (Andreas Kluth - The Economist) - courtesy of ui designer

Posted on November 01, 2004 | Permalink