Elegant Design

Strive for Elegance, Not Simplicity

“Simplicity is a myth whose time has past, if it ever existed.” Thus claims Don Norman in a new article for Interactions magazine. Joel Splosky concurrs, noting

Making simple, 20% products is an excellent bootstrapping strategy because you can create them with limited resources and build an audience. It’s a Judo strategy, using your weakness as a strength, like the way the Blair Witch Project, filmed by kids with no money at all, used the only camera they could afford, a handheld video camera, but they invented a plot in which that was actually a virtue. So you sell “simple” as if it were this wonderful thing, when, coincidentally, it’s the only thing you have the resources to produce. Happy coincidence, that’s all, but it really is wonderful.