Great article on design.
The article discusses; the clean and simple Google page, MIT Media Lab's Simplicity Consortium, how Phillips is working toward simplicity, not only in design. but also in day to day operations(they went so far as to limit Powerpoint presentations to 10 slides).
We end up with digital devices that do lots of things we don't care about, sometimes at the expense of those things we do care about, with a corresponding increase in complexity and failure rates, and decrease in customer ease-of-use.
It's relatively easy and inexpensive, considering the cost of the initial design, to add "features" to a microprocessor controlled device. Engineers and industrial designers tend to operate in a closed loop where the level of technological savvy and interest in tech is high, and then extrapolated to everyone.
Does Grandma really want a cellphone that can download ringtones?
When was the last time you used the digital camera in your cell phone (on purpose)?
The article mentions, "John Maeda who runs the Media Lab's Simplicity Consortium." and goes on to say,
"His goal is to find ways to break free from the intimidating complexity of today's technology and the frustration of information overload.
In his quiet way, Maeda hopes to right the balance between man and machine. He and his students are working on software, code-named OPENSTUDIO, that would create an "ecosystem of design"--connecting designers with customers on a broad scale. That could lead to products--a cell phone, for example, with 30 features for Junior, 3 for Gran. "You can't make the world simpler unless you can get in touch with design," he says, "and the only way you can do that is to get in touch with designers."
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