Prolific designer Michael Bierut blogs honestly about a common unease among designers:
The iterative process, the role of improvisation, the adjustments that are made in response to audience feedback, all of these elements are a part of any design process. And, in a way, they’ve always been the ones that have vaguely unnerving to me.
I’ve mentioned [...]
You can view simplicity two ways. Either way is focused on attaining the optimal balance between effectiveness and bulk. The first is the way we’ve talked about so far: cut away unnecessary bulk by targeting a narrower market. Example: Building a product/service that better anticipates users needs by narrowing your market to a more specific [...]
Catching up on PJ Brunet’s blog, I read an interesting quote, from Cartographic Principles (it’s the third):
3. SIMPLICITY FROM SACRIFICE Great design tends towards simplicity. (Bertin) Its not what you put in that makes a great map but what you take out. The map design stage is complete when you can take nothing else out. [...]
Boost marketing success: Targeting your product/service let’s you provide less bulk with more meaning.Think the last marketing message aimed at you that “broke through”. Here’s what got it that far: Targeting. The message tapped into your circumstance, interests, sense of humor, or style (probably in that order).From a marketing perspective, a specialized product or service [...]
Your users will accomplish more, faster, with a product/service tailored specifically to them than if they struggle to apply an overly-generic product to their needs.Many consultants, developers, and marketers compete to have largest quantity of features instead of competing to be most useful. Don’t believe me? Take a look at software marketing material: all features, [...]
“Less is more” has become a catchy rallying cry for the simplicity in software movement. Critics have been quick to contend that, in fact, “more is more” in the way of features.The advocates of “less is more” are not petulantly arguing for Zen-like non-dualism. Less becomes more with an ideal ratio of user success to [...]
Paul Kedrosky thinks so. He makes the case in this month’s Business 2.0 that “the cult of simplicity” is based on what he feels is a false premise: “less is more”.He’s correct many designers/builders of web applications are touting simplicity as the answer to many project management and usability problems, but I’m not buying Kedrosky’s [...]
When you hone a knife, you’re sharpening it by inflicting friction on the dull edges.I’ve been honing my process for delivering branding and marketing work for almost ten years. It’s never been as complex as the first day I used it. The process has been honed into a smarter, simpler tool.When we’re operating from a [...]