Good design is simple
Summary
- Good design tends to be simple
Details
- Strip away unnecessary ornamentation and things that dont add to the main purpose of your design
- say what you mean, briefly
- Simplicity is not as easy as it appears - it requires thought and work
References
Quotes
GOOD DESIGN IS SIMPLE. You hear this from math to painting. In math it means that a shorter proof tends to be a better one. Where axioms are concerned, especially, less is more. It means much the same thing in programming. For architects and designers, it means that beauty should depend on a few carefully chosen structural elements rather than a profusion of superficial ornament. (Ornament is not in itself bad, only when it's camouflage on insipid form.) Similarly, in painting, a still life of a few carefully observed and solidly modelled objects will tend to be more interesting than a stretch of flashy but mindlessly repetitive painting of, say, a lace collar. In writing it means: say what you mean and say it briefly.
It seems strange to have to emphasize simplicity. You'd think simple would be the default. Ornate is more work. But something seems to come over people when they try to be creative. Beginning writers adopt a pompous tone that doesn't sound anything like the way they speak. Designers trying to be artistic resort to swooshes and curlicues. Painters discover that they're expressionists. It's all evasion. Underneath the long words or the "expressive" brush strokes, there's not much going on, and that's frightening.
Related
- Our life is frittered away by detail…Simplify, simplify, simplify… Simplicity of life and elevation of purpose - Henry David Thoreau
- I believe the way toward mastery of any endeavor is to work toward simplicity- replace complex technology with knowledge - Yvon Chouinard
- Simple and shallow sound the same until you ask the second question - Shane Parrish
- Design is not decoration
- Try to design elegant solutions