Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.

When forced to wait, life seems unnecessarily complex. Savings in time feel like simplicity. … A shot from the doctor hurts less when it happens quickly, and even less when we know that the shot will save our lives.

Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

Simplicity is about the unexpected pleasure derived from what is likely to be insignificant and would otherwise go unnoticed.

Savings in time feel like simplicity.

John Maeda is a graphic designer and computer scientist. His book, The Laws of Simplicity, proposes

The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.

More emotions are better than less.

The best designers in the world all squint when they look at something. They squint to see the forest from the trees-to find the right balance. Squint at the world. You will see more, by seeing less.

In simplicity we trust.

Knowledge makes everything simpler.

Some things can never he made simple.

Simplicity and complexity need each other.

In addition to the ten Laws, Maeda offers three Keys to achieving simplicity in the technology domain.

1 AWAY More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away.
2 OPEN Openness simplifies complexity.
3 POWER Use less, gain more.

When in doubt, just remove. But be careful of what you remove. … When it is possible to reduce a system’s functionality without significant penalty, true simplification is realized.

This is true for any object, no matter how difficult. The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law. We are well aware of the dive-in-head-first approach-“I don’t need the instructions, let me just do it.” But in fact this m...