[IxDA Discuss] John Maeda's Laws of Simplicity

[Rob Tannen]

Juhan - I respectfully and strongly disagree with your favorable recommendation of Maeda's "The Laws of Simplicity".  While there is inherent value in many of the principles that he advocates, the book itself is neither simple nor readable.  
 
Maeda's writing style, overuse of acronyms and lack of concrete, actionable advice makes it read more like a monologue (which I guess it is).  Perhaps my expectations going into the book were off, but its certainly not, as a back-cover reviewer wrote,  a "clear and incisive guide for making simplicity the paramount feature of our products".
 
I'd recommend "Universal Principles of Design" as a more thoughtful and useful counterpoint.
 
Here's a brief review that I wrote to evidence my points:
 
http://humanfactors.typepad.com/idsa/2006/09/the_laws_of_sim.html 

________________________________

From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com on behalf of Juhan Sonin
Sent: Mon 9/4/2006 10:18
To: discuss at ixda.org
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] John Maeda's Laws of Simplicity



[Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted material.]

Read the 99 page book over a long lunch or two.

Give the book to design colleagues and interns... and to
non-designers and senior management.

Maeda's mantra is spot on.

The Laws of Simplicity and The Wealth of Networks (Y. Benkler) are
two must-reads.

-Juhan
--
Juhan Sonin
http://www.mit.edu/~juhan
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