Gems from The Complexity of Simplicity by Dan Saffer:
• “Had I but more time, I would have written less” - Thomas Jefferson. If you have more time, you can come up with simpler, tighter solutions.
• People like to surround themselves with unnecessary power. Research has shown that feature lists are important UNTIL a user users the product, after which they matter less than the usability of the product.
• Giving choices gives people a sense of control. But as Barry Schwartz points out in Paradox of Choice, too many choices becomes a cognitive burden. Users are happier with limited choices. It’s the responsibility of the designer to help with that. This is why preferences can be so bad: the abdicate responsibility.
• New version of products = more features. Focus on improving the core functionality, not on “value-add” extras.
• One way to avoid or at least argue effectively against stakeholders jamming in new features by establishing design principles near the beginning of the product. Design principles state the design objectives in clear, memorable language. If you can get people to agree to those at the beginning of the project, you’ll have ammunition to use later to prevent the product from being pulled in various directions.
• “Most companies are looking to “wow” with their products, when in reality what they should be looking for is an “of course” reaction.” - Christian Lindholm
