More is Less...

A New York Times article by Alice Rawsthorn revisits the idea that "less is more," but more importantly that "more is less." After a awful experience with a digitized bathroom faucet at a friend's house, Rawsthorn explains how the un-necessity of functions that are supposed to make a device more user friendly, are making them over-complicated.

As one of the founding principles of innovative design, "clarity" is a lost cause in some innovators' purpose. By adding more functions to an already simple product, the consumer is not only frustrated when they don't work coherently, but they defeating the purpose of a product that was supposed to make it easier on themselves as well as save them time. The danger of this digital age and the phenomena that adding more means simplicity in use is luckily off put by innovators who still get "clarity" even if the device can do a million different things.

Rawsthorn brings up the folks at Apple and how they developed the user interface for the iPhone from scratch, and how they did not build upon older products' U.I.s, which has, without fail, caused many other similar devices to cause plenty of problems. The iPhone, therefore, is an extreme multitasking tool that seems more intuitive than complicated... even though it is more "complex than a bulldozer."

So the battle continues... Flashy lights and unnecessary functions to make a simple device complicated... and simplicity and clarity to make a complex device intuitive and easy... hopefully that latter will triumph....