Striving for Simplicity

Why is everything so complicated and hard to understand? How do we make sense of the world around us with information everywhere? Why can’t things be simpler?

Great question, but some people believe that simple means banal and anything that is simple must of less value or importance or substance because, well, it’s simple!

When you see a really simple idea you wonder why you did think of it and that’s the whole point - you didn’t because you may have been looking for a more complicated answer!

Leonardo Da Vinci said "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." This is one of my favourite quotes, because it clearly says that being simple isn't banal, it's difficult to achieve yet elegant.

Simplicity in design enables a user to easily and quickly understand how to use a product. Is your software easy to use? Is it intuitive or does it require a steep learning curve? Do you know how to use a supermarket? What about when you arrive at an Airport, how do you know where to go - even if you haven’t been there before? 


Our ability to use any product or service involves a combination of expert knowledge, previous experience, a degree of intelligence, common sense, a basic level of literacy or an ability to understand signs and symbols.

But design is not just about making products - it is about creating a user experience for anything. In their book Design Matters: How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company, Emery and Brunner describe how design IS more than form and function and how great design across everything you do, will make people love your company - it’s definitely worth a read.

Stephen Hawking tried to simplify the origins of the Universe in his book ‘A Brief History of Time’ and to a degree he succeeded - well, a lot of people bought the book, but maybe they were like me and still found it hard to get past the first few chapters. This was because once he explained the basic ideas he delved into the detail that required some degree of expert knowledge.

The same holds true in business, because many organisations concentrate on describing the detail of what they do before they set the scene and describe their ‘Big Picture’. Their audience find it hard to understand what they are saying and they drift off to look at something else.

Why not take a fresh look at your story and how you communicate it? Is it really simple and easy to understand? Are your messages Clear, Concise and Compelling?

Remember, simple is NOT bad, it’s good and it can give you competitive advantage in a world where many messages are competing for attention.