Keep It Simple

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/20/technology/essay-a-design-epiphany-keep-it-simple.html?scp=1&sq=A%20Design%20Epiphany:%20Keep%20It%20Simple-%20John%20Maeda&st=cse&pagewanted=1

Dr. Maeda says. Despite the lip service paid to ''ease of use,'' ''plug and play,'' and ''one-click shopping,'' simplicity is an endangered quality in the digital world, he adds, and it is time to break free from technology's intimidating complexity.

Dr. Maeda says the solution is not better design or better technology but a better partnership between the two.

what did "Simplicity" mean in practical terms?

The brainstorm suggested crucial elements: transparency, aesthetic appeal, restraint, just-in-time information.

1.Heed cultural patterns. The iPod, for instance, succeeded not just because of its sleek form, but because, in conjunction with iTunes, it solved so many of the problems of buying and storing music.

2.Be transparent. People like to have a mental model of how things work.

3.Edit. Simplicity hinges as much on cutting nonessential features as on adding helpful ones, the Newton MessagePad and the Palm Pilot being prime examples.

4.Prototype. Push beyond proof-of-technology demos and build prototypes that people can interact with.

''We need to bring dynamic, immersive, engaging visuals to a whole range of information-display problems, from handling messages in your e-mail in-box to mapping the genome.''

As the first year of the workshop ends, the most obvious conclusion is that it has barely scratched the surface. With every Consumer Electronics Show, we seem to wade deeper into the ''paradox of the digital age,'' in the words of the computer scientist and design critic Donald Norman: the very technologies that we hope will simplify life ultimately complicate it. But there is hope. As Mr. Moggridge says, ''Technology is the villain, as well as the exciting opportunity.''