Achieving Simplicity in Design, Technology, Business and Life

Book review: The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) by John Maeda.

In one of my posts in the Thoughts and links section I said I would write something about this book by John Maeda, a graphic designer, computer scientist and MIT professor. I bought it after watching the author’s talk on simplicity patterns at the TED website (also embedded at the bottom of this post).

In his book, John Maeda introduces great techniques to achieve simplicity. The examples that are used in the book are easily connected to things we know in life or work so it gives you some warm surprises when you read it. We are constantly thinking how we can make our life and what we do more simple and the techniques in this book can be applied to those thoughts right away.

A book about simplicity has to be simple and this one clearly is with few exceptions I mention later on. It’s short, on point and consists of 10 laws. What’s furthermore, is that the author offers a simpler way of reading the book:

If you wish to save time (in accordance with the third Law of TIME)”, I suggest you start with basic simplicity (1 to 3) and then skip to the tenth Law of THE ONE which sums up the entire set.

The first law, reduce, is about achieving simplicity through thoughtful reduction. That is finding the balance between how simple you can make something and how complex it has to be. The second law, organize, addresses how to make a system of many appear fewer by organizing it and the third law, TIME, is about how savings in time feel like simplicity.

Let’s break it down by its own medicine - simplicity.

The simple and enjoyable

• The length - 100 pages
• Great techniques of how to achieve simplicity
• Well organized
• Maeda’s writing is warm and personal so you get the feeling that he’s sitting next to you and you’re having a conversation.

Quotes:

“What program do you use?” is a question I often get about the slides I use to present my work. I have concluded that the proper answer to the question is to counter-suggest the asking of a different question, “What principle do you use?”

Sometimes mixing actual and perceived qualities works well, like in the design of the Bang & Olufsen remote control. The unit is thin and slender in composition and made with the finest materials, but is significantly (and intentionally) heavier - as a means to subtly communicate higher quality - than you would expect from its appearance.

The not so simple

• The book cover - judge for yourself! Do you think the swirly images on the front cover and the lines under the text on the back cover are appropriate for a book on simplicity? I personally threw the cover away and I think the book looks a lot better (and more simple) without it as you can see in the second image.

• The book uses acronyms, which are not easy to remember, introduced in the beginning chapters and then constantly referred to in other chapters. I found myself having to go back to the page where they were introduced because I couldn’t remember exactly what each stood for.

Otherwise, great!

The book doesn’t go into much details in how exactly you should use the techniques introduced but it helps you understand what simplicity consists of and gives you a good direction if you’re interested in digging deeper. At the end of the book there is a list of books that inspired the author when he was writing each chapter. I’ve already decided to read one of them, a book which I bought few months ago but haven’t had the time to read it until now - The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less by Barry Schwartz.

Barry Schwartz talks: TED (20 min), Google (64 min).

When I read this book I had the feeling everyone recognizes. It’s the feeling where you’ve been thinking a lot about something but you haven’t been able to think it through or sort it out. Then you read a book about it and suddenly you realize that’s exactly what you had been wondering about, but there it is - complete and printed on a paper. It brings order to your thoughts and organizes them.

Essential reading for everyone who wants to achieve simplicity in design, business, technology and life!

Buy this book on Amazon.

Maeda’s talk on the TED conference

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