In a world where everything is multitasking, doing something with simplicity becomes increasingly rare and a privilege of a few. John Maeda explains how to live simply in his best selling book: \u201dThe laws of simplicity\u201d setting out his 10 rules of which quote some excerpts. Taken from John Maeda, \u201dThe Laws of Simplicity\u201d, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006.<\/p>\n
1 REDUCE
\nThe simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. The easiest way to simplify a system is to remove functionality. Today\u2019s DVD, for instance, has too many buttons if all you want to do is play a movie. A solution could be to remove the buttons for Rewind, Forward, Eject, and so forth until only one buttonremains: Play. [\u2026]
\nLessen what you can and conceal everything else without los-ing the sense of inherent value. EMBODY-ing a greater sense of quality through enhanced materials and other messaging cues is an important subtle counterbalance to SHRINK-ing and HIDE-ing the directly understood aspects of a product. Design, technology, and business work in concert to realize the \ufb01nal decisions that will lead to how much reduction in a product is tolerable, and how much quality it will embody in spite of its reduced state of being.<\/p>\n
2 ORGANIZE
\nOrganization makes a system of many appear fewer. However, in the long term an effective scheme for organization is necessary to achieve de\ufb01nitive success in taming complexity. In other words, the more challenging question of \u201cWhat goes with what?\u201d needs to be added to the list. For instance in a closet there can be groupings of like items such as neckties, shirts, slacks, jacket, socks, and shoes. A thousand-piece wardrobe can be organized into six categories, and be dealt with at the aggregate level and achieve greater manageability. Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. Of course this will only hold if the number of groups is signi\ufb01cantly less than the number of items to be organized.<\/p>\n
3 TIME
\nSavings in time feel like simplicity. Every year something like this happens: I get stuck on an airport runway for 4 hours in the middle of a snowstorm, then stand in line for 3 more hours to determine my future \ufb02ight\u2019s fate, then the next morning stand for 2 hours in a line to get through security in order to wait another 1 hour on the runway again. The realization that life is about waiting comes later in life. As a child, the idea of waiting is something foreign and simply intolerable. But waiting is what we do in the adult world. We do it all the time. [\u2026] When time is saved \u2013 or appears to have been \u2013 the complex feels simpler.<\/p>\n
4 LEARN
\nKnowledge makes everything simpler. Operating a screw is deceptively simple. Just mate the grooves atop the screw\u2019s head to the appropriate tip \u2013 slotted or Phillips \u2013 of a screw driver. What happens next is not as simple,as you may have noted while observing a child or a woefully sheltered adult turning the screwdriver in the wrong direction. [\u2026] So while the screw is a simple design, you need to know which way to turn it. [\u2026] The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law. We are well aware ofthe dive-in-head-\ufb01rst approach \u2013\u201cI don\u2019t need the instructions, let me just do it.\u201d But in fact this method often takes longer than following the directions in the manual.<\/p>\n
5 DIFFERENCES
\nSimplicity and complexity need each other. Nobody wants to eat only dessert. Even a child that is allowed to eat ice cream three meals a day will eventually tire his sweet tooth. By the same token, nobody wants to have only simplicity. Without the counterpoint of complexity, we could not recognize simplicity when we see it. [\u2026] Acknowledging contrast helps to identify qualities that wedesire \u2013 which are often subject to change. I don\u2019t personally prefer the color pink, but I do like it as a dash of brightness in a drab sea of olive green. The pink appears bold and vibrant as compared with its dark and muted surroundings. We know how to appreciate something better when we can compare it to something else.<\/p>\n
6 CONTEXT
\nWhat lies in the periphery of simplicity is de\ufb01nitely not peripheral. I was once advised by my teacher Nicholas Negroponte to become a light bulb instead of a laser beam, at an age and time in my career when I was all focus. His point was that you can either brighten a single point with laser precision, or else use the same light to illuminate everything around you. Striving for excellence usually entails the sacri\ufb01ce of everything in the background for the sake of attending to the all-important foreground. I took Negroponte\u2019s challenge as a greater goal of \ufb01nding the meaning of everything around, instead of just what I directly faced.<\/p>\n
7 EMOTION
\nMore emotions are better than less.\u2028\u2028 My daughters send me email with text of all sizes, all colors, and sometimes in ALL CAPS! [\u2026] Does not the phrase \u201cI love you!\u201d have so much more meaning when typed. \u201cI LOVE YOU!\u201d? Think of it typed at 36 points in pink and bright yellow and it really can go over the top. I once asked one of my students at MIT why she never smiled when communicating with others. She said, \u201cBecause I don\u2019t want to look unprofessional.\u201d This event caused me to re\ufb02ect on my own attempts to project professionalism as a professor, which caused a natural lean towards the stereotypical stern and authoritative. As an artist, I found the results of my self-analysis offensive. Thus, today I try to reply back to my daughters in all-caps and colorful letters when nobody\u2019s looking, \u201cI LOVE YOU TOO!!!\u201d<\/p>\n
8 TRUST
\nIn simplicity we trust. Imagine an electronic device with only one unlabeled button on its surface. Pressing the button would complete your immediate task. Do you want to write a letter to Aunt Mabel? Go ahead and press the button. Click. A letter has been sent. You know with absolute certainty that it went out and expressed exactly what you needed. That\u2019s simplicity. And we are not far from that reality. Every day the computer becomes increasingly smarter. It already knows your name, address, and credit card number. Knowing where Aunt Mabel lives and having watched you write a letter to her before, the computer can send a fair approximation of a kindly email to her from you. Just click a button and the deed could be done \u2013 \ufb01nito. Whether the message is coherent and keeps you on dear Aunt Mabel\u2019s Christmas list is another story, but that is the price of not having to think.<\/p>\n
9 FAILURE
\nSome things can never be made simple. The truth embodied in the ninth Law is something I could have chosen to HIDE, but the eighth Law of TRUST commands me to speak. Some things can never be made simple. Knowing that simplicity can be elusive in certain cases is an opportunity to make more constructive use of your time in the future, instead of chasing after an apparently impossible goal. [\u2026] There\u2019s always an ROF (Return On Failure) when you try to simplify \u2013 which is to learn from your mistakes. When faced with failure, a good artist, or any other member of the creative class, leverages the unfortunate event to radically shift perspective.<\/p>\n
10 THE ONE
\nSimplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful. The Japan National Rugby Team was once a mighty force that has fallen in recent years. Led by a new French coach, Jean-Pierre Elissalde, they appear to be on the rise. When Ellisalde \ufb01rst came aboard, he assessed the team\u2019s basic problem \u2013 the players were too predictable. As they moved up the \ufb01eld, the ball was passed between team members with a mechanical accuracy that was easy for their opponents to predict, and thus consistently topple. Elissalde urged his players \u201cto become likethe bubbles in a glass of champagne\u201d, \ufb02oating upwardin unexpected and elegantly \ufb02uid ways. The Japanese team had to learn how to operate based upon intuition versus intellect. Simplicity is hopelessly subtle, and many of its de\ufb01ning characteristics are implicit (noting that it hides in simplicity).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a world where everything is multitasking, doing something with simplicity becomes increasingly rare and a privilege of a few. John Maeda explains how to live simply in his best selling book: \u201dThe laws of simplicity\u201d setting out his 10 rules of which quote some excerpts. Taken from John Maeda, \u201dThe Laws of Simplicity\u201d, Massachusetts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2581,"featured_media":26060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-no-category"],"yoast_head":"\n