my thoughts
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jnd.org: Simplicity is highly overrated
Posted to Usability by Dominic Winsor on 11 Dec 2006
Don Norman has a knack for observing the world around him, pointing out the crazy things that silently frustrate us daily. His books are absolutely fascinating — I had always wondered why the knobs on a cooker are never arranged in the same spatial pattern as the burners they control. But why are things so complex?
Don's recent essay points out how we can invest in design and technology to create more intelligent systems that remove the burden from accomplishing a task, to create a simple system with few controls.The problem is that on a shop floor, when a potential customer is evaluating a product, the fact is that features sell — why pay more for a device with fewer buttons even if the device actually does more and is easier to use?
» www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly.html