Laws of Simplicity

As this books hasn’t been translated into Japanese, I reluctantly started to read it in English. And finally I finished it!!! John Maeda, a professor at the media labo in MIT, writes about “simplicity”. Althought the volume of the book itself it not so big….

…Difficult! So difficult!

He uses a lot of examples of product design such as iPod or B&O, but some of stories are rather phylosophical matters based on his life experiences. Well, my English ability is not good enough, that’s all.

He says:

“Simplicity and complexity need each other.”
“What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.”

and so on. Actually what this book talks about is very comlicated, deep and it could be written in some thick, series of books, but they are simply organized in 10 laws here. But the impression after reading is so much. I think it’s great this book itself is following the laws.

Simple design” tends to be so cheap, but the reason why professional designed simplicity looks so cool might be because they are following these kind of laws. I felt like that.

He also writes blog about it.

Laws of Simplicity Website

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