The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) Later prt. Edition

by John Maeda (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0262134729

ISBN-10: 0262134721

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Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more.

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."

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this breezy treatise, graphic designer and computer scientist Maeda proposes ten laws for simplifying complex systems in business and life-but mostly in product design. Maeda's upbeat explanations usefully break down the power of less-fewer features, fewer buttons and fewer distractions-while providing practical strategies for harnessing that power, such as SHE: "Shrink, Hide, and Embody." The first three laws, based on principles of reduction, organization and efficiency, form the foundation for increasingly complex and self-referential concepts like the importance of context and the potential for failure in simplification (by the end of the book, Maeda is chiding himself for using too many acronyms). Combined with trust and emotional engagement (laws 7 and 8), Maeda demonstrates how complex systems can become downright lovable: Maeda recalls "the Tamagocchi craze of the late 1990s... showed that anyone could fall in love with a small electronic keychain," drawing a corollary to the almighty iPod (an iconic example referred to throughout). Emphasizing the delicate balance-work involved in simplifying the complex, Maeda admits the process isn't easy, and that his ten laws don't necessarily provide all the answers-in numerous places, he directs readers to the web site where his theories continue to develop. Despite that, this slim book feels complete in itself; not only will it stimulate ideas, it will keep readers thumbing back for a second and third look at Maeda's deceptively simple advice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Abstract recommends this book particularly to marketing people, product designers and technical writers.

―GetAbstract

FINALLY, a book about simplicity that is not too academic to read.... At the book's heart is the Shinto belief in animism, the spirit in all objects. Nicholas Negroponte, one of Maeda's mentors, once told him to become a lightbulb, not a laser beam. This he has done; all this and more.

―Susan Salter Reynolds, The LA Times

John Maeda's new book, The Laws of Simplicity, is simply terrific. It's exactly 100 pages, the illustrations are brilliant and the 10 Laws of Simplicity (plus Three Keys) are a canon to design one's entire life, much less specific products, services or business models. The subtitle is: Design, Technology, Business, Life.

―Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek's blog "NussbaumOnDesign"

Keep it simple, Stupid' is an old piece of advice, so much so that it's often abbreviated as the 'KISS principle.' But it's advice that's often ignored, and MIT Professor John Maeda aims to change that.... Designers and marketers will find Maeda's book both interesting and useful....

―New York Post

Maeda's Laws and Keys have an obvious practical application in everyday running of a busy life (and desktop); they also have the potential to translate into a productive methodology for any craft or design practice.... A very humble, enlightened and caring human, John's written a little bible.

―Liz Farrelly, Crafts Magazine

Maeda's upbeat explanations usefully break down the power of less-fewer features, fewer buttons and fewer distractions-while providing practical strategies for harnessing that power.... Emphasizing the delicate balance-work involved in simplifying the complex, Maeda admits the process isn't easy, and that his ten laws don't necessarily provide all the answers-in numerous places, he directs readers to the web site where his theories continue to develop. Despite that, this slim book feels complete in itself; not only will it stimulate ideas, it will keep readers thumbing back for a second and third look at Maeda's deceptively simple advice.

―Publishers Weekly

Technology and life seem to be getting more complicated, yet two great success stories, Google and the iPod, both provide the antidote of simplicity. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda uses humble prose to provide an accessible guide, business and life, observing the principle: 'Simplicity equals sanity.'

―David Smith, The Observer

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The MIT Press; Later prt. edition (August 21, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262134721
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262134729
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.38 x 0.85 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #566,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #120 in Industrial Product Design
- #383 in Industrial & Product Design
- #1,220 in Mechanical Engineering (Books)

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279 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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L. Reding

Not worth your time

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2019

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Maeda is in the driver's seat but he has no idea where he's going. Each chapter careens and spirals in ways that had me repeatedly flipping back pages to check the chapter I was reading. There are plenty of 'examples' in the book that haven't aged well in the few years since the books publication or are at best tenuously related to the chapter's topic. Maeda's apparent fascination with finding words in other words--the word implicit is contained in the word simplicity!--and creative cute acronyms is at best distracting and at worse makes me question how the author spent his time preparing to write this book.

6 people found this helpful

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A S.

Did anyone edit or proofread this?

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2020

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This book occasionally stumbles on actual relevant points that the title suggests. However the author spends most of this book name-dropping, making un-cited broad generalizations on human mentalities and psychology, and undermining himself by using the same examples to support opposite ideas.

This was a mess that was topped with a cherry of the author basically calling out his terrible approach at the very end.

I feel motivated to write my own book on simplicity in UX design because apparently the bar is so incredibly low.

3 people found this helpful

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Read and think

I book about the author, not about simplicity

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2014

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This book is about this astonishing author! The author is a fantastic parent whose kid sends him all caps "I LOVE YOU" email, is an incredible teacher who teach the brightest of the world, yet still manage to remains amazingly humble (he says that he has at time learned from his students: can you can possibly believe that such as genius could ever learn anything?). The author does not lose an occasion to mention in passing that he met so-and-so celebrities. He enjoys expensive restaurant and the most expensive toys.
What else do you need to know about the Great Author?
Oh, what was the title of the book again? Oh yes, simplicity. The title of the chapters is just about the only interesting content there is in the book about the subject. All the rest of the books is trite and superficial and unwarranted self-agrandisment by an insecure author. Even his further reading list, shows how superficial the author is.
The only ray of sunshine here is that I was able to return it for a full refund.
Nevertheless, the impostor has succeeded in robbing me of precious time.

44 people found this helpful

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AJK

Save yourself the trouble and skip it

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2020

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A complete waste of time. It’s a book that seems to be written to promote Maeda’s framework rather than help the reader. It’s almost slanted towards functioning as an ad campaign for future speaking engagements.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

This book drag me back from being over complicated

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2019

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I was a person who always want to design something unique and spent lots of time, but the results were not desired. With the recommendation of my professor, I read this book and I was also involved in Community-Built project at the same time. During the process of working in studio and woodshop, I generally realized something. Being simple does not mean I do not need to think, it may mean that when I raise a solution for a question, I should dig deeper to decrease the complexity of this solution. Finally the form of the solution becomes simple, while it still solve that problem perfect. I would say "user friendly" is a kind of being simple. Keeping that "balance" is really important.

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Experienced seminar leader

Fluffy rather than profound

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2014

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This book was okay as far as it went, which was not very far. The "laws" are adequate and valid - except for law #7, which I found incomprehensible. However, the commentary on the laws was light and superficial rather than deep and provocative. I wish he had discussed when simplicity amounts to a profound achievement and when it is simply simple. I wish he had gone beyond objects to also discuss language and ideas being simple or complex. I wish he had explored when simplicity pleases us and when it becomes rather useless and uninteresting. For example, poetry and advertising succeed most when they are simple on the surface but with many layers of meaning.

10 people found this helpful

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Bear B.

Simply not that great

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2012

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I expected quite a bit, based on the breathless reviews. As some of the other reviewers wrote, however, I found it to be meandering stream-of-consciousness stuff, without much by way of concrete conclusions. I found myself reading carefully to see whether I could extract a deeper underlying point to each of the chapters, then skimming a paragraph at a time, then flipping pages at an increasing rate... and finally setting it down, never to be picked up again. Twain is reputed to have written that he wrote a long book because he hadn't had time to write a short one; this one strikes me as a short book written because the author didn't even take the time to write the long one.

14 people found this helpful

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Utkan Uluçay

looks like a checklist...

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2015

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I agree the core messge : Make it simple!
I remember Einstein as well : not more simpler, meaning do not sacrifice the core.
I remind that it is required a smart effort to make sth simpler, but it is easy to make sth complex.
It is a repetition with nice acronyms for me, not very productive experience of learning.

4 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

Thought provoking for all technologists

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2013

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As engineers, technologists have a habit of looking through the lense of the "function". Maeda encourages more than a sideways look through the lense of the "form" of an application/device/process. With simple examples and down to earth anecdotes drawn from relevant personal experience, this quick read is thought provoking and backed up by online content for those interested enough to go looking.

dmc63

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2018

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A simple book with a good message

Can Burak Bizer

Nice to read, conscise

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2009

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A nice to read book from John Maeda - as he mentioned on a short flight. Simplified approach to simplicity is nice and well organized thoughtful approach. Consciseness is a plus.

4 people found this helpful

May

Subtly fascinating!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2014

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Maeda has intelligently and concisely formalised the rules for visual design, a must-read for designers as a reference for achieving great work or to recap on what you already know :)

Berry82773

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 17, 2015

Verified Purchase

Short and sweet