12.10.2006

Commentary , Design , Simplification

Don Norman's Heresy

Don Norman makes a rather provocative assertion: Simplicity Is Highly Overrated. "Given a choice, [people] will take the item that does more. Features win over simplicity, even when people realize that it is accompanied by more complexity."

Hmm, that's oversimplifying it a bit, isn't it? I've seen complex-looking products that do only one thing. And I've seen simple-looking products that are feature-rich. Of course we want more features...otherwise, we'd need larger homes to accommodate all the gadgets and appliances we possessed that only do one thing. Frankly, I find that more complicated.

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