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| The Laws of Simplicity (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life) | 
 enlarge | Author: John Maeda
Publisher: The MIT Press
Category: Book
List Price: $21.00
Buy New: $12.78
You Save: $8.22 (39%)
New (36) Used (11) from $12.78
Avg. Customer Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 2381
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 127
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0262134721
Dewey Decimal Number: 650.1
EAN: 9780262134729
ASIN: 0262134721
Publication Date: August 21, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Received an Honorable Mention in the Communication and Cultural Studies category of the 2005 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc.
Finally, we are learning that simplicity equals sanity. We're rebelling against technology that's too complicated, DVD players with too many menus, and software accompanied by 75-megabyte "read me" manuals. The iPod's clean gadgetry has made simplicity hip. But sometimes we find ourselves caught up in the simplicity paradox: we want something that's simple and easy to use, but also does all the complex things we might ever want it to do. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda offers ten laws for balancing simplicity and complexity in business, technology, and design--guidelines for needing less and actually getting more.
Maeda--a professor in MIT's Media Lab and a world-renowned graphic designer--explores the question of how we can redefine the notion of "improved" so that it doesn't always mean something more, something added on.
Maeda's first law of simplicity is "Reduce." It's not necessarily beneficial to add technology features just because we can. And the features that we do have must be organized (Law 2) in a sensible hierarchy so users aren't distracted by features and functions they don't need. But simplicity is not less just for the sake of less. Skip ahead to Law 9: "Failure: Accept the fact that some things can never be made simple." Maeda's concise guide to simplicity in the digital age shows us how this idea can be a cornerstone of organizations and their products--how it can drive both business and technology. We can learn to simplify without sacrificing comfort and meaning, and we can achieve the balance described in Law 10. This law, which Maeda calls "The One," tells us: "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Simplicity complicated September 2, 2006
117 out of 130 found this review helpful
The goal of the book is extremely worthwhile: to promote simplicity. It tries to do so in a small book, about 100 pages in small sized pages. Unfortunately it fails, it does not use it own lessons and presents a complicated description of "Simplicity". In order to simplify, it (ab)uses acronyms that do not elicit the thoughts that are intended. For instance, take SHE (Simplify, Hide, Embody). Using the word SHE is hard to turn your mind to "Simplify, Hide, Embody". Then there is BRAIN (Basics, Repeat, Avoid, Inspire, Never) and SLIP (Sort, Label, Integrate, Prioritize). Simple? To present the ideas, Maeda uses a random collection of recollections, of anecdotes, of circumstantial evidence, organized around ten laws, to illustrate the points it wants to make. As you read, you can find another anecdote from your own life, another experience that can contradict his conclusion. Not all is negative, there are some gems that make the reading worthwhile. For instance, law 10, or "the one": "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful". Imagine if presentations in meetings, conversations or written reports were to keep this law, how more productive our lives would be. This is my simplified review!
 Pretty book, unfinished thoughts --- too much simplicity can be just as bad. November 10, 2006
31 out of 35 found this review helpful
I agree with the other reviewer: The dust jacket of this book is a very creative design. The content however is disappointing. The ideas (read: bullet point-level detail) that Maeda begins to talk about show promise. However, he never describes them in sufficient detail for the reader to know what was going on inside his head. The goal of the book is worthy: To boil down simplicity to a few key law-like generalizations. But the book itself does not demonstrate that. Instead, the book is a good example of how too much simplicity can also be undesirable. Perhaps the author was fixated on producing a short 100 page book. Perhaps he assumed too much prior knowledge of his typical readers (or perhaps assumed familiarity with his papers)? The book reminds me of the quote by some famous person (Einstien, I think): Make things just as simple as they need to be, but not simpler." This pretty book is an example of the truth in that statement. I hope that a future book by this author will leave where this one abruptly left off. If you must buy it, borrow it from your library first.
 Promising title with no substance November 14, 2006
11 out of 17 found this review helpful
I was really hoping for a new approach or perspective. This author has managed to take a promising subject and mollest it by going on about loosely connected factoids and trying to make them sound somewhat academic just to be published. I challenge anyone who has read this book to come up with a coherent idea of any new thought presented in it.
Great idea but Maeda's style may not be what you're expecting. August 3, 2007
11 out of 12 found this review helpful
I found the laws themselves to be thought provoking; my mind immediately engaged the task of relating the laws to my own work. While the laws themselves are a delicious reduction the text itself is just the opposite. With such a dogmatic title strapped to a compact book I expected Maeda to directly confront on the topic of simplicity in a brief yet concrete manner (similar to how William Strunk hits the target dead on with The Elements of Style). Instead Maeda only lightly probes "simplicity" with lots of personal anecdotes, abstract thoughts and the iPod (for most examples). The book is more of a meditation on the topic than a "law" book.
I highly recommend reviewing the laws at John Maeda's site: [...] and consider doing your own meditations. Read the book only if you're interested in viewing the cogs turning in the mind of Maeda without them producing the condensed sweetness you might expect in such a compact tome.
(The hardcover book itself is nicely designed, printed and bound for those of you interested in good quality book and a favorable price.)
 simplicity, a lifestyle December 12, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
i've been familiar with maeda's work for about three years, and have worked with design by numbers. i love his visual style and methodology, and this book reads like it was written by a designer, rather than an academic. it's a condensation of ideas from donald norman and information aesthetics, and if you're looking for a substantial amount of text clarifying design theory, this will not do that. it is more of an artist's book. one negative aspect is the use of acrononyms, which confuses rather than clarifies. but other than that, this short collection of wise observations will help make your life simpler, if you are ready for it.
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