Simplicity

In my journey of design education I have learned that why is more important than what. We were always questioned for why we have done this more importantly than what we have done. And the question why from your design leads you to simplicity, simplicity of process and product.

“Simplicity is the direct result of profound thought.”

Abstract

The thought of simplicity has always excited and inspired me as a designer and as an individual. What I have learned in my design journey is that to solve any problem it’s very mandatory that we simplify the problem first. The thought of simplicity not only simplify the process of design but also making the today's lifestyle simple. So that it inspired me to take the thought as my colloquium subject. Here I will first study the thought from other designer’s perspective and then analyzing and concluding it on my own thoughts and experiences.

Simplicity

How I understand the thought is by first understanding the grammar of the word, then the philosophy behind the word and then following the designers and groups who are known for expert in this particular thought.

To understand the word properly we need to know its origin, meaning and grammar. The word simplicity is derived from the word simple. So first I will start with the word simple, the word simple stands for

1. easy to understand, deal with, use, etc.

2. not elaborate or artificial; plain.

3. not ornate or luxurious; unadorned.

4. unaffected; unassuming; modest.

5. not complicated.

6. not complex or compound; single

7. occurring or considered alone; mere; bare.

8. common or ordinary

9. not grand or sophisticated; unpretentious.

10. humble or lowly

11. inconsequential or rudimentary.

12. unlearned; ignorant

13. lacking mental acuteness or sense

14. unsophisticated; naive; credulous.

15. unmixed or uncompounded.

Synonyms for word simple,

Absolute | Perfect | Plain | Sheer | Unadulterated | Undiluted | Unmixed | Effortless |Facile |Smooth |Bald | Dry

Origin of the word is from word simplex, where “sim” stands for one or single.
The word simple is an adjective. While looking for meaning of word simple we can easily observe that the word has two sides. One the positive side and the other negative side of it, for example, the word simple means sophisticated and also unsophisticated while the both words are actually antonyms of each other. Understanding feeling aspect of the word we can express it to in two totally different ways,

1. He is a very simple guy. :)

2. He is a very simple guy. :(

Now learning the word simplicity, simplicity is a noun which means,

1. the state, quality or an instance of being simple or uncombined.

2. freedom from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts.

3. freedom from deceit or guile; sincerity; artlessness; naturalness.

4. absence of luxury, pretentiousness , ornament, etc.

1. Absence of luxury or showiness; plainness.

2. Absence of affectation or pretense.

3. (a) Lack of sophistication or subtlety.

(b) Lack of good sense or intelligence; foolishness.

4. (a) Clarity of expression.

(b) Austerity in embellishment.

Looking at the synonyms for the word simplicity,

Plainness | Simpleness | Unassumingness | Unpretentiousness | Candor | Clarity | Clearness | Ease | Easiness | Homogeneity | Directness | Honesty.

Now for understanding the thought I researched on designers like Dieter Rams, Jonathan and John Maeda. John Maeda is one of the well known name in the design community. He is entitled as one of the most important personalities of 21st century. He has done a very well research on the thought of simplicity. He keep his blogs and web links updated about his thought on simplicity and the book he has written on the same thought called, “The Laws of Simplicity”, which has become my major source of inspiration for this learning. He proposed ten laws of simplicity, which are as below,

(Immediately applicable)

1. Reduce - The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

The fundamental question is, where’s the balance between simplicity and complexity?

How simple can you make it? – How complex does it have to be?

2. Organize - Organization makes a system of many appear fewer. Using the law of Gestalt psychology, law of proximity, where a group of objects perceives as a single object. Too many things on their own looks very complex but if segregated in groups look a bit simple. For example control system for an Audio/Video player. The main operations like play, stop, reverse, forward and eject are in the audio player itself but other additional operations like menu, display, timer, audio effects, repeat, mute, jump to next folder, etc. And even some operation are required to be done through screen like jumping to a very later/earlier song/album, selecting an audio effect, video settings, brightness, contrast, sharpness and other output settings. So by organizing the distribution of control system we make it simple to operate the player.

3. Time – Simplicity of experience. Waiting for things are sometime subtle (usually when it’s expected) and sometime very frustrating (mostly when it’s unexpected), but mostly it’s a tense and annoying experience. When any interaction with products or service providers happens quickly, we attribute this efficiency to the perceived simplicity of experience.

(Intermediate and Subtle in meaning)

4. Learn – Knowledge makes everything simpler. A screw is a simple design, but you need to know which way to turn it or else it will lead to complexity. The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law of time. The more you know about the product more simple it becomes and the lesser you know the more complex it become.

5. Differences – Simplicity and complexity need each other. Without the counterpoint of complexity, we could not recognize simplicity when we see it. Our eyes and senses thrive, and sometimes recoil, whenever we experience differences. Acknowledging contrast helps to identify qualities that we desire—which are often subject to change. We know how to appreciate something better when we can compare it to something else.

6. Context – What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral. A magician is the master of consciously shifting their audience’s unconscious context. The understanding of context is must but to surprise the consumer we should play at peripheral part of the problem. Because delivering the obvious will lead to a plain and boring simplicity while delivering an unexpected will increase its context to itself. Meaning getting something more than expected but by considering the law one, reduce.

(Deep Simplicity)

7. Emotion – More emotion are better than less. The more emotion we add to the product the more contextual it becomes. It adds a personalization value to the product which brings more contexts to it, sixth law, context. For example giving product name or tag line according to its target audience also bring more of emotional attachment to the product and which basically simplify the bonding between product and the consumer.

8. Trust – In simplicity we trust. I remember when my father went through his angioplasty operation he was really tensed and scared before the operation but as he met the doctor and had few minutes chat with him he really become confident and easy about the operation. And the outcome was he preferred to have walk rather than going on stretcher to the operation theatre. So the conclusion is if you really trust or have faith on the product then it simplify and strengthen your bonding with the product. Some time sense of humour or other emotional values also build a trust or bonding between the products which leads to simplicity.

A business without trust make the deal very complex while the same deal could turn it to simple if both parties have trust on each other.

9. Failure – Something can never be made simple. Defects are normally stamped out in a six-sigma world. If it ain’t perfect, throw it out. Perhaps as you get older, you are more tolerant of how the world presents its failure-s around you. And maybe it is then you can begin to see the beauty of that which could be dismissed as invalid or otherwise handicapped, to emerge as entirely more relevant than if it were 100.000% perfect. A product with many components and purposes are mostly leads to complexity. E.g. software like Maya which has n numbers of tool and purposes become very complex to be understood as a whole package by an individual.

(The Law)

10. The One – “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”

In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity, because if they don’t have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you.

An article in the book, “The Tao of Warren Buffet”, page 47.

One of Jim Collins’ points of philosophy is his “Hedgehog Concept.” According to Jim, hedgehogs understand that the essence of profound insight is simplicity. He elaborates further on these animals that — “They see what is essential, and ignore the rest.” — Which sounds an awfully lot like the tenth Law the one.

Contents of book, Good to Great by Jim Collins.

“If there was no praise or criticism in the world, then who would you be?” -Anonymous

Three Keys

1. Away – More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away. By prioritizing the information or need we can make a complex looking product also simple. E.g. I Pod has a minimum operation button which makes it look like a simple product.

2. Open – Openness simplifies complexity. The easier is the product to understand the more simple it becomes. Keeping the operations of product very clear and approachable to consumer lead to simplicity. The more you know about a person the better will be your relation.

3. Power – Use less gain more.­­ Try to use as minimum as possible because the more you add to it the more complex it become.

“Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.”

- Koichi Kawana

“Good design is as little design as possible.” – Dieter Rams

Conclusion

I would like to conclude this learning by saying there are two types of simplicity, one which differs from situation to situation and other the ultimate which remains same for every human. Explaining the first which is contextual, differing from situation to situation.

If simplicity is related to requirement, so then requirements are our needs, and needs differ from people to people. Every individual, every group, every culture has their own needs and that also differs from situation to situation. Today need is a very vast and dynamic term. Gadgets and products like iPod, mac book, mobile phones, lip gloss, internet service etc are categorized as basic needs. May be because the needs like food, shelter, clothes etc are taken for granted with growth of human kind.

(References: www.answer.yahoo.com, www.indusladies.com, www.yelp.com)

Time, society and needs are directly related to each other. If time is changing then the other two can’t be untouched. For an example land line telephones few decades ago were the matter of proud or status symbol or rather luxury. But today having two handsets with two different services is become a basic need. Because today people handling the business of crores of rupees from overseas. Nowadays with the fastest communication technologies people’s reach have become really bizarre, so definitely it has its own course of needs and requirement on the society. So that when asked about the five things without which you can’t live people actually answers iPods, mobile phone, lip gloss etc.

Simplicity is directly a matter of its surrounding or the target group. For example I made a poster for a competition held in our institute, what is graphic design? My poster was a click of wall with heart shape and name Mena engraved on to it and I just added a headline Graphic Design. The poster was a second winning entry of the competition and was appreciated by most of faculties and design students. But if I put the same poster in an environment where people actually don’t know what is graphic design then the same winning entry poster could have been turn into a failure.

By knowing my environment I designed such poster which makes it simple for those who has the knowledge (law 4, learn) but not for everyone. The same poster could have entitled as a complex product if I would have designed it for a non design environment.

The other conclusion is simplicity doesn’t mean compromising the quality. In fact simplicity mean improving the quality and serving to its best but with minimum means. The discussion started when I asked people about simplicity and few of them argued, what is the requirement of new technologies? Why we need any innovation now?

What my learning in these few days say is technology comes with complexity and complexity brings the simplicity. Fifth law, differences – Simplicity and complexity need each other.

For instance I remember when Mr. Dhimant Panchal informed me about a new D-SLR which has Bluetooth device in it. I was a bit unhappy with that combination of technology and I asked him, does it really require? And he replied think of wild life photographer who actually spends their days and months just to get a click. How simple his life will be now!

So don’t be santhust. Wish karo Dish karo.

The ultimate simplicity. I questioned myself there must be a core of simplicity, which remains same for everyone. Then I thought why there is a thought of simplicity? Then I tried it to relate our daily life but couldn’t conclude something. Then Mr. Arvind Merchant asked me about have you given a thought to “sanyasi jeevan”. What actually it means? Then again I started with the question why? Why sanyas? I remember few books by a budhist monk Ram Tzu and Fr. Anthony de Mello which talks about spirituality and philosophy of life has mentioned many short stories on the thought of the ultimate truth. One of the story which I remember about attaining the ultimate truth was,

Monk: How it feels after attaining the truth?

Master: Still the bird sounds same, the earth smells the same, the wind feels like the same.

Most of such stories say that nirvana is actually about living the total present only. But to achieve that simplicity it takes its own course. From a perspective of our material life also if we observe we get retired in the age sixty from service. Why sixty only? And why in Hinduism also they have mentioned that the age after sixty is of spirituality. Most of people actually start becoming spiritual on their own by this age. Why?

What I believe that by this age we actually have experienced almost everything. Our experiences has grown up to our wisdom, we have build up a sufficient content with in ourselves. And after attaining that we start thinking of simplifying our life. So that we try to omit unnecessary activities, try to live more simple. In fact if we observe the society also behave the same way as society becomes from people only. Once it achieve its growth, the city becomes more simple, for example, go to an urban area or city we will find more of the shops, their billboards and kiosks will be simple and minimal while in a developing or underdeveloped areas the shops and their look and feel will be very crowded and louder. Just same like while we humans are in our young ages.

So one could say that simplicity comes with passage of time and after attaining the maturity. And simplicity comes where there is a progressive growth or improvement. A well informed or aware or an educated generation will automatically increase the simplicity in society. Educated and informed consumers already make the process and problem simpler for them so that the products on its own become simple.

But the one question which I couldn’t answer is, if we have already reached to this thought then what is next? What is after simplicity? Though I totally believe that no one could achieve it completely. As in it can’t be achieved 100% because even if one could then it will be complexity in itself. Because if everything will be simple then how will we decide what is simple as there is no complexity. And its human behaviour nothing lasts for long, no thought is entertained for a timeless period. Then what is next?

A taste for simplicity cannot last for long. - Eugene Delacroix