simplicity

Black Saturday is not over yet

Last week I had the opportunity to visit some of the people who had been affected by Victoria’s 2009 Black Saturday bushfires. As always, these sorts of visits leave me in a reflective mood. This time I was particularly struck by the disparity between the perspectives of those directly affected by a disaster and those [...]

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It’s True: The World is Simpler than We Think

Always nagging in the back of my mind is the notion that the world is a lot more simple than we tend to make it. (It is because of this that, over the years, I’ve been an advocate for simplicity.) To see how complicated we imagine life to be, take a look at the Self-Help and [...]

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Marketing Shock! Less is the New More

Not two, three, four or five. My latest razor now has five blades – plus one on the back for trimming any recalcitrant hair. Our toilet paper is now three layers thick, has a space-age texture and is quite possibly made from Kevlar. Our toothpaste makes so many promises that our dentist can safely retire. [...]

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Happiness Sheds its Hippie Heritage

I was listening to a talkback radio discussion last night about what constitutes achievement and success in work and life. While not a particularly original topic for evening radio, I was struck by the tone of the calls. During quite a lengthy discussion, not a single caller suggested that success is about climbing the corporate ladder or making money. Could it be that success – for everyone, not just the hippies – is about being happy?

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Keeping my Helicopter out of the Whirlpool

A thought for the weekend. I’ve had a fairly intense week with clients who are confronted with a range of complex issues. As the week ends, I’m struck by how much effort is needed to stay ‘above’ the detailed issues in order to maintain a ‘global’ perspective. It is that nature of my work that, [...]

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In Search of a Simpler Work Experience

I made my move two years ago. At the time I didn’t tell many people. I didn’t want to be embarrassed if it didn’t work out. I didn’t want people saying, “I told you so”. But now, two years on, it’s time I told you about my shift. In the early days, the old place [...]

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Using Simplicity for Spin

We all love a bit of simplicity, don’t we? Most of us like things to be easier – especially those more routine parts of life like domestic chores and shopping. Which is why we currently have marketers and advertisers clamouring over each other to attach words like ‘simple’ and ‘easy’ to their products. Banks (loans [...]

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Simplicity Cuts Through: What Politics can Teach Management

Last night I watched the last episode of series six of the West Wing. (Yes – I know. In Australia we are light-years behind.) The highlight of the episode is a speech to the Democratic convention by congressman Matt Santos – a speech which ultimately wins him the candidacy. At various times during his speech, [...]

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Does Simplicity have a Future?

Simplicity is over-rated. At least that’s what a leading thinker on product design, Don Norman, wrote last month. He went further, saying “simplicity is a myth whose time has past [sic]”. So are those of us who believe in simplicity kidding ourselves? Is it worth pursuing or a waste of time and energy?

I started thinking about Don Norman’s article a couple of days ago (see below). Here they are explored in a little more depth.

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Simply Complex? Complicated Simplicity? What is Simplicity’s place in 2007?

A swag of recent articles have alluded to one of the big problems with the pursuit of simplicity: it doesn’t necessarily sell. Essentially (and at the risk of over-simplifying!) it is argued that people tend to opt for extra, usually complex, features over simplicity at the time of purchase – whether or not they use [...]

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