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Says Apple:
Simplicity is actually quite complicated
Simplicity is often equated with minimalism. Yet true simplicity is so much more than just the absence of clutter or the removal of decoration. It’s about offering up the right things, in the right place, right when you need them. It’s about bringing order to complexity. And it’s about making something that always seems to “just work.” When you pick something up for the first time and already know how to do the things you want to do, that’s simplicity.
Very often, not least in forums such as this, when we talk about simplicity vs complexity, there tends to be a considerable lack of discrimination between whether it is the analysis that is difficult or whether it is the end result (e.g. a method or product) that will be difficult to actually use.
We all want results fast, and want things to be simple (to use and live with), and we often tend to accept solutions that are "simpler than possible" in order to make it simple for us (to analyze and deliberate).
There is a trade-off somewhere. Initial deliberation can eliminate a lot of unnecessary work and frustration at later stages (or for other people), but only up to a point. When the potential for simplifying the ongoing use of the end result (the method or product etc) has been exhausted we have almost certainly reached one of those points where further analysis has no value. But we often stop before we reach any of those points.
Simplicity is actually quite complicated
Simplicity is often equated with minimalism. Yet true simplicity is so much more than just the absence of clutter or the removal of decoration. It’s about offering up the right things, in the right place, right when you need them. It’s about bringing order to complexity. And it’s about making something that always seems to “just work.” When you pick something up for the first time and already know how to do the things you want to do, that’s simplicity.
Very often, not least in forums such as this, when we talk about simplicity vs complexity, there tends to be a considerable lack of discrimination between whether it is the analysis that is difficult or whether it is the end result (e.g. a method or product) that will be difficult to actually use.
We all want results fast, and want things to be simple (to use and live with), and we often tend to accept solutions that are "simpler than possible" in order to make it simple for us (to analyze and deliberate).
There is a trade-off somewhere. Initial deliberation can eliminate a lot of unnecessary work and frustration at later stages (or for other people), but only up to a point. When the potential for simplifying the ongoing use of the end result (the method or product etc) has been exhausted we have almost certainly reached one of those points where further analysis has no value. But we often stop before we reach any of those points.
