Simple isn't simple

This post is about John Maeda's book, The Laws of Simplicity. I just finished reading it and was simply impressed. If you read the reviews on amazon, they are mixed. I have a simpler take, read it and judge for yourself. It is a bit over $10 and 100 pages. At most it will take you the equivalent of 3 episodes of 24 to read and you will learn so much more.

I liked it a lot, will require it in many of my courses (HCI and Software Architecture and Design) and willl have several future posts on it. I have espoused simplicity and know simple isn't simple, but Maeda helps us in its pursuit. Software folks and engineers need more grounding (fore and back) in design concepts and this is a simple, gentle introduction. It is well written.

It seems appropriate to make this first post simple. For more information, Maeda has a web site. Later!

Comments

[William Lapenta]

I was a little disappointed after I finished reading John Maeda's 'The Laws of SIMPLICITY'. Not that anything presented did not ring true, rather I felt most of the points he made were so obvious as to be almost self-evident. Although I am sure that Mr. Maeda is an extremely talented and intelligent man, I did not come across anything I would consider a revelation in his book.
The one quote that kept resonating in my mind as I was reading was one from another author, Ralph Blum, which is “nothing in excess”. It seemed that this quote could be applied to much of what was presented in Mr. Maeda’s book.

[Gregg Vesonder]

William, thanks for the comment and therein lies the quagmire of simplicity. If you capture it, it often seems obvious and well that is precisely the point. The question I would ask is could you have self generated the points and would this be a useful checklist to go through when you get to your next project? I think this is a valuable synthesis and your reaction in some way is a validation of it. Although the nothing in excess comment does not ring true, but that is a great topic for a new blog entry. We often are enamored with equations and hard stuff and ignore what some would call the "soft" stuff. That gets you into trouble.

[John Ackley]

Just finished Laws of Simplicity this morning. Like William, I found many of Maeda's observations to seem obvious. But rather than being disappointed, I was pleased to have so many of my own thoughts validated.

I've tried to capture the idea of simplicity with properties like being concise and lean and neat. And I've collected quotes from the likes of Einstein (Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler), St. Exupéry (Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away), William of Ockham (Occam's Razor), and Larry Wall (Simple things should be simple, hard things should be possible).

But this little book is revelatory. Not because of the importance of any one original idea, but because of the acknowledgment that multiple perspectives are needed when considering such a complex and relative topic as simplicity. Maeda gives us several important perspectives of which I had previously not considered, such as Differences, Context, Emotion, and Trust. Even those laws that seem obvious provide improved perspective, particularly Failure.

And what's not to like about Law 10. Maeda has improved on my previous favorites, and earned a spot among them.

Thanks for suggesting this great little book.