Friday, November 13, 2009

Simplicity is Higly Overrated

Yes, we want simplicity, but we don’t want to give up any of those cool features. Simplicity is highly overrated.

Norman points out the Korean SUV's and toasters as examples of things being bedazzled with virtually useless features, and contrasts this with the Seimens washing machine which essentially could take care of the entire operation if the designers would only let it. This provides for an effective juxtaposition of "Good design" and "design people will pay for."

Strictly speaking, it isn't my line, but if I were to make the opposing argument, my thesis would simply be "A designer knows his work is done not when there is nothing left to add, but nothing left to take away."

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