Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebellingagainst technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menu... read full description
reviews
Jan 19, 2012
Vincent
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J'ai lu il y a quelques jours un livre formidable de John Maeda, intitulé "The laws of simplicity". L'auteur est enseignant-chercheur au MIT et est spécialiste des sujets liés à l'utilisabilité et au design. Il offre ici en 100 pages brillantes de concision et d'efficacité quelques clés pour "simplifier" l'expérience offerte aux clients. Les lois, très simples sont les suivantes:
Tout ceci paraît b More...
Tout ceci paraît b More...
Jan 20, 2012
TarasProkopyuk
rated it:
Великолепная книга!
И близко не ожидал, что дизайн занимает такое большое пространство в нашей жизни. Такое моё восприятие возможно из-за того что я логик, а дизайн и логика это как два противоположных полюса. Но тем не менее рискну предположить, что эта книга очень сильна в своей тематике. «Законы простоты» та книга, которую следует прочитать всем, кто причастен к создании и воплощению в жизнь услуг, товаров, и прочих ценностей. Читать просто обязательно! :) More...
И близко не ожидал, что дизайн занимает такое большое пространство в нашей жизни. Такое моё восприятие возможно из-за того что я логик, а дизайн и логика это как два противоположных полюса. Но тем не менее рискну предположить, что эта книга очень сильна в своей тематике. «Законы простоты» та книга, которую следует прочитать всем, кто причастен к создании и воплощению в жизнь услуг, товаров, и прочих ценностей. Читать просто обязательно! :) More...
Apr 17, 2010
From the MIT Media Lab, Professor John Maeda (who has published a few of my stories on his Simplicity blog) this year published this small volume that summarizes his thoughts on incorporating simplicity into design, technology, and product development. I enjoyed this book not only for the science but from a cultural anthropological perspective - it is thought-provoking to consider how, in this world of hyper-connectivity and technological efficiencies, we as humans often need (crave even) a mor
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Sep 25, 2011
Henri
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Mr. Maeda takes the ambitious mission of explaining simplicity in the book. I've always thought that simplicity is something some people just seem to understand, and others just don't. It's kind of like an eye for something. John Maeda has taken this task to gather many different ways (or laws as he calls) simplicity appears. It's a challenging task, but he has done it really well.
Mr. Maeda introduces in simple way the usual forms of simplicity and gives small introduction how people c More...
Mr. Maeda introduces in simple way the usual forms of simplicity and gives small introduction how people c More...
Jan 19, 2011
Rafael
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Good study on what simplicity, both real and perceived, are made of, and what to focus on to achieve it. For product design or business management, or even daily life, good concepts are present in the book to help simplify or better understand the complexity around these.
The book is written in a personal and casual tone, sometimes even funny, that transmits a lot about the author, John Maeda, and gives an enjoyable feeling to follow through, as sounds a lot like a conversation. The sma More...
The book is written in a personal and casual tone, sometimes even funny, that transmits a lot about the author, John Maeda, and gives an enjoyable feeling to follow through, as sounds a lot like a conversation. The sma More...
Dec 03, 2010
Brynn
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"Simplicity is about the unexpected pleasure derived from what is likely to be insignificant and would otherwise go unnoticed." (2)
"The Pareto Principle is useful as a rule of thumb: assume that in any given bin of data, generally 80% can be managed at lower priority and 20% requires the highest level. Everything is important, but knowing where to start is the critical first step." (14)
"The best designers in the world all squint when they look at some More...
"The Pareto Principle is useful as a rule of thumb: assume that in any given bin of data, generally 80% can be managed at lower priority and 20% requires the highest level. Everything is important, but knowing where to start is the critical first step." (14)
"The best designers in the world all squint when they look at some More...
Aug 12, 2010
Arnaud
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10 laws and a hundred pages to turn complex matters into simple ones…it is so little time consuming and cheap that it would be unreasonable not to read.
Maeda, like many of us, has observed that life, products and technology were becoming increasingly complex and looked for ways to simplify them. The book is then not only applying to design but is a more general essay on making life more comfortable.
The ten laws can easily be understood and in fact it could be explained in a lot less More...
Maeda, like many of us, has observed that life, products and technology were becoming increasingly complex and looked for ways to simplify them. The book is then not only applying to design but is a more general essay on making life more comfortable.
The ten laws can easily be understood and in fact it could be explained in a lot less More...
Oct 20, 2009
Joel
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A worth while read for anyone interested in design, The Laws of Simplicity has one overriding virture: it's brevity. Maeda is content to keep his musing short and to the point, which means that one could probably breeze through the book in an afternoon. In these pages are a fair number of suggestions which could be useful for anyone stuck on a design problem (e.g. "our product isn't visually appealing and I can't put my finger on why") or anyone looking for a philosophical idea to po
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Jan 15, 2009
Trent
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I loved this book and the concise presentation of powerful ideas. He has collected the principles to drive toward simplicity and makes the case for the power behind simplicity. This can be applied in so many circumstances.
Madea’s background coming from both computer science and design is especially intriguing to me. As I sit on the technical side of things I am often fascinated by the design world. The more I learn and observe I see many corollaries between the two worlds. I was able t More...
Madea’s background coming from both computer science and design is especially intriguing to me. As I sit on the technical side of things I am often fascinated by the design world. The more I learn and observe I see many corollaries between the two worlds. I was able t More...
Apr 23, 2009
Rob
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well, i was hoping for much more philosophy. turned out to be mostly about product design.
also, the register was often annoyingly sort of oprahish. explaining to the reader why certain objects make them feel certain emotions, with the implication that if you follow these instructions and buy objects satifying the following guidelines, you'll soon be feeling better emotions.
that said, i actually really liked most of the 10 laws, and just wish that in the exposition he'd More...
also, the register was often annoyingly sort of oprahish. explaining to the reader why certain objects make them feel certain emotions, with the implication that if you follow these instructions and buy objects satifying the following guidelines, you'll soon be feeling better emotions.
that said, i actually really liked most of the 10 laws, and just wish that in the exposition he'd More...
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Jan 21, 2010
Mat
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I like Maeda, I have one of his old design books. This one started off well enough but quite soon I began to feel it wasn't really aimed at me. Maeda has a great capacity for summarising and shrinking information into simple, digestible phrases, but I couldn't help thinking with The Laws Of Simplicity he was shaping aesthetics and technology into metaphors aimed at middle managers looking for the latest self-help book.
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Jul 26, 2010
Dave
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This book was simple in the best possible way. It was concise while still presenting powerful concepts.
I think the most important Law from the book was that you shouldn't remove emotion from your designs to achieve simplicity, use emotion as the complex counterpoint to otherwise simple designs. Simplicity can't exist without complexity (a bit of an Incredibles argument), so the real challenge is to strike the right balance.
While I took this out from the library to read it More...
I think the most important Law from the book was that you shouldn't remove emotion from your designs to achieve simplicity, use emotion as the complex counterpoint to otherwise simple designs. Simplicity can't exist without complexity (a bit of an Incredibles argument), so the real challenge is to strike the right balance.
While I took this out from the library to read it More...
Oct 31, 2009
Sidharth
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The terseness of this book appealed to me a lot -- just 100 pages. Its written in simple language and organized well. The author lays down 11 principle/laws of simplicity and connects them as one progresses reading this book. Some really good quotes are included in relevant places. However the second half of the book begins to look like a drag. Nevertheless ends on a strong note. I guess it has atypical structure of "self-help" books.
Verdict: Worth a read, if you have coup More...
Verdict: Worth a read, if you have coup More...
Feb 04, 2008
Melissa
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I'm not a designer, or a programmer or even much of a business person in my mind so maybe that is why I feel the book was somewhat loss unto me. There are definite applications for designing products, esp. tech products. The book moves towards a much more philosophical commentary on simplicity and I'm not sure if I can buy into it.
Main idea: subtract the obvious and add the meaningful. Applicable to writing, some product design and most likely coding.
Simplify by:
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Main idea: subtract the obvious and add the meaningful. Applicable to writing, some product design and most likely coding.
Simplify by:
More...
Jul 18, 2010
Eva
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This is an interesting look at how design affects products in the world. Since I have more experience with the technology side of the equation, I found the book interesting in its views that the points about how design drives different technology. It is a short read, with interesting conclusions about the struggle to find the right balance between simplicity and complexity in the world.
Mar 06, 2009
Vulgrin
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This is a sort of "Zen and the art of Being Simple." It's not full of practical advice, but more of a thought-process and style that you should apply to everything to make it simple. Some good underlying principles for those who are designers or who need to communicate ideas, but quite lacking in practical application.
Amusing book for a limited audience I think.
Amusing book for a limited audience I think.
Jul 01, 2011
Michel
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Omg, do I wish I'd read this book way back when!
It contains everything I learned the hard way, and quite a few I didn't learn any way.
And how long did it take him to distill his subject to the 'substantific marrow'? Every chiseled sentence quotable…
For my part I will say this one out loud every morning: "Simplicity is substracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful".
It contains everything I learned the hard way, and quite a few I didn't learn any way.
And how long did it take him to distill his subject to the 'substantific marrow'? Every chiseled sentence quotable…
For my part I will say this one out loud every morning: "Simplicity is substracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful".
Nov 08, 2010
Kristian
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Captivating set of principles that while don't explicitly tell you "how to make something simple," do provide the context for you to think about simplicity yourself. More of a self-help for simplicity than a tomb on actually making anything, I found it captivating and quick to read. I'll be thinking about everything in this book on every new project I start from now on.
Dec 23, 2009
Joshua
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This book is pretty short, yet the author filled it with several informal ramblings, which means the amount of good content in the book is pretty small. I expected something a little more professional or academic from an MIT professor. This book is just a rough and loose outpouring of unrefined ideas, which the author admits to in his introduction. I'm not a fan of books written with blog-style prose and quality. However, because he stated that it was his purpose to put out some rough ideas I am
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Jul 29, 2011
Jason
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I was completely underwhelmed by John Maeda's 'Laws of Simplicity'. I feel that he 'oversimplifies' life and the value of efficiency and efficacy with acronyms/mnemonics for how to simplify life. I didn't get a sense any deeper reasoning to his statements beyond the obvious/common sense. Not a book that I would recommend to any of my friends.
Mar 24, 2011
Diego
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El libro es una gran clase en sentido común, que irónicamente como su reflexión sobre la simplicidad y complexidad es impresionante irónica pues el sentido común es el menos común de los sentidos.
muy recomendable para cualquier persona sobre todo aquellas que se encuentran mas metidos en áreas creativas como la ciencia, el arte etc.
muy recomendable para cualquier persona sobre todo aquellas que se encuentran mas metidos en áreas creativas como la ciencia, el arte etc.
Sep 13, 2011
Sameer
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Didn't expect to be disappointed by this book but was proven wrong. There are good nuggets throughout the book but it's overall incoherent, conflicting and hand-wavy. It's ironic that the list of the ten rules of simplicity has both verbs and nouns which makes it hard to parse. Not good design.
Feb 10, 2012
Ryan
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For anybody in business, design, technology, who has customers in any shape or form, this book is an absolute, 100% must-read. Short, but every single page is action-packed with valuable insight. It's cheap, it's short. Do yourself a favor and pick it up even if you're not convinced.
May 15, 2011
Simon
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This is a kind of 'barely book' - it's slight, in every sense of the word, and I can barely recall any of it. But I wrote oodles in the margins. And I've thought 'through' the book many times.
Go figure.
Go figure.
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Feb 28, 2011
Janika
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Somehow the simplicity and friendliness of the book reminds me of Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (probably due to the fact, that I read the latter recently). Nothing fundamentally new or ravishing here, but nevertheless very enjoyable and comforting reading. After all there's nothing wrong with REPEAT.
Dec 29, 2011
Jenna
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This is really a meditation on simplicity rather than a roadmap to it. There are certainly some ideas that I will ruminate on as I struggle to achieve a better simplicity in my life and work.
Sep 14, 2009
Nick
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I liked this little book on simplicity in design and life. The writing is thoughtful, the thinking elegant. I'm going to keep my review simple and just say, read it.
Jan 01, 2012
Catherine
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I really liked his theories about simplicity and the outline of the book (10 laws and 3 keys), but the delivery wasn't stellar. Way too many acronyms. It became tedious to read about halfway through the 100-page book. The irony of this is on display in one of the last chapters, where he writes about "The Flaws of Simplicity 1: Acronym Overload" and the acronym choices he debated. Perhaps it's because of his graphic design background that he sees the visual in the words more vivid More...
Jun 30, 2009
Allen
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This is surprisingly subpar material from someone I greatly admire. The book lacks historical context and the examples used are quite ho-hum.
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Jan 06, 2012
Vuk
rated it:
Meh. Beautiful as an object, nice exercise, good basic idea, but ultimately bit too flimsy. Reads a bit like self-help book really.
