The Laws of Simplicity

Design, Technology, Business, Life

John Maeda

120 pages, parution le 07/07/2006

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Résumé

Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte "read me" manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that's simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design--guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.

Maeda--a professor in MIT's Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer--explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of "improved" so that it doesn't always mean something more, something added on.

Maeda's first law of simplicity is "Reduce." It's not necessarily beneficial to add technology features just because we can. And the features that we do have must be organized (Law 2) in a sensible hierarchy so users aren't distracted by features and functions they don't need. But simplicity is not less just for the sake of less. Skip ahead to Law 9: "Failure: Accept the fact that some things can never be made simple." Maeda's concise guide to simplicity in the digital age shows us how this idea can be a cornerstone of organizations and their products--how it can drive both business and technology. We can learn to simplify without sacrificing comfort and meaning, and we can achieve the balance described in Law 10. This law, which Maeda calls "The One," tells us: "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful."

Graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist John Maeda is the founder of the SIMPLICITY Consortium at the MIT Media Lab, where he is E. Rudge and Nancy Allen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences. His work has been exhibited in Tokyo, New York, London, and Paris and is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Smithsonian Institution National Design Award in the United States, the Raymond Loewy Foundation Prize in Germany, and the Mainichi Design Prize in Japan.

L'auteur - John Maeda

John Maeda est le plus grand web-designer de notre époque. Il enseigne les arts et les sciences numériques au Media Laboratory du Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) de Boston. Son oeuvre numérique est régulièrement exposée dans le monde entier et fait notamment partie des collections permanentes du Museum of Modern Art de New York.

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Sommaire

Law 1 : Reduce
Law 2 : Organize
Law 3 : Time
Law 4 : Learn
Law 5 : Differences
Law 6 : Context
Law 7 : Emotion
Law 8 : Trust
Law 9 : Failure
Law 10 : The one

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	The MIT Press
Auteur(s)	John Maeda
Parution	07/07/2006
Nb. de pages	120
Format	15 x 21
Couverture	Relié
Poids	290g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780262134729
ISBN13	978-0-262-13472-9