About the Author…
Graphic designer, visual artists, and computer scientist John Maeda is president of the Rhode Island School of Design and founder of the Simplicity consortium at the MIT Media Lab.
In his book The Laws of Simplicity, outlines ten laws that can be used for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design.
Law 1 REDUCE The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through reduction
He started with reduction a guideline for needing less but expecting more. The first chapter is applicable to software design the integrated circuit (IC) chip technology-commonly referred to as “ Computer Chips”- He offered to work with what he called the law of SHE method, Shrink, Hide, Embody. Small devices seems simpler to use because of how it is designed on the surface, there’s just no enough spaces and you think it cannot contain much complexity due to the size.
But all of these simple devices have hidden functions to it, and that brings us to the second method HIDE, which remains concealed inside, and he talked about the computer screen as an example where the screen hides a lot of stuff in its software. The computer has an infinite amount of capacity to hide in order to create the illusion of simplicity.
As he reached to the third method EMBODY where is it more of a business decision not a technical one. He explains how consumers buy smaller and simpler devises if they feel they are powerful enough.
“ The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful Reduction “
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