I was reading about MIT’s SIMPLICITY project this morning and being that I am in the process of designing some software that I am trying to keep simple, I was was thoroughly entranced by the conclusions, or laws of simplicity, they are coming to about design and what makes good, simple design. John Maeda, one of the project’s heads, explains the first law of simplicity.

A complex system of many functions can be simplified by carefully grouping related functions.

He uses the various iterations of the ipod as an analogy of how to carefully group related functions and how when grouping functions, it is possible to oversimplify to the point that the functions lose their individual identities and threfore their individual functionality.

His insight is giving me a whole new direction in my efforts to not only decide what to include in this software, but also how to present the functionality in a way that my carefully selected features retain their individual identities and therefore, individual funtionality and benefit.

Categories: Software