The Laws of Simplicity is an incredible, persuasive and breathtaking novel that discusses the striving desire for simplicity. John Maeda theorizes that almost everything can be simplified and that simplicity is desired in many aspects of life. By following a simple set of rules Maeda sets out to show us the desire that we all want things to be more streamlined, from running our lives more efficiently to conducting our business to offer better products to our customers. Maeda clearly has excellent understanding and perception of what it takes to achieve simplicity and proves it by writing his 100 page novel carefully and thoughtfully according to his ten laws. Throughout each chapter Maeda uses is diverse background and gives real world examples of how simplicity can be used to achieve greater success.
Maeda has developed an outstanding strategy in obtaining simplicity through thoughtful reduction, organization, saving time, knowledge, differences between simplicity and complexity, context, emotion, trust, failure and most importantly subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful. In the first law, Maeda expresses how people “want a product or service to be easy to use; on the other hand want it to do everything that a person might want it to do.” In his analysis, he gives clear cut examples of companies like Apple that have started to “simplify technology.” Maeda’s example in the evolution of the I Pod demonstrates how a small change in simplicity can result in a huge change in product success. The I Pod is a perfect example of what Maeda calls “shrinking, hiding, and embodying (SHE)” because it is small, hides its buttons to one touch dial and embodies cleanliness and value. Another excellent example Maeda uses is Google. He explains how Google has simplicity locked down. Google has one text input box for you to enter your search but through this search it also gives you thousands of websites you may be looking for. The simplicity of Google’s search engine is one of the reasons that the company has prospered so greatly.
This novel also enlightens the reader by showing us simplicity is not always necessarily destined to be achieved. His ninth law recognizes that “some things can never be made simple which he explains “isn’t always a bad thing because “complexity and simplicity are two symbiotic qualities” which need each other. Without complexity “how would you know what is truly simple”?
Not only is he a graphic designer, a visual artist and a computer scientist, John Maeda has also been a student and teacher at MIT. He has seen complexity and simplicity of designs and technology from many different perspectives. Designers and business professionals should take note of John Maeda’s The Laws of Simplicity because all will truly appreciate his approach to simplicity. John Maeda has stated that his ten laws are not the end of his thoughts to simplicity and that he continues his mission in the search to simplicity. In our world simplicity is desired everywhere, the more we strive for simplicity in life the more complexity grows as well. Maeda’s finial thought are mesmerizing when he leaves us with his finial thought of “when your entire life is reduced to a single shelf of curios, what memories might you enshrine?”
