The Russians Used a Pencil

OneZero: Parsons DT Thesis Symposium

The Design and Technology department at Parsons (of which I am an alum) is holding their second annual thesis symposium this weekend, titled OneZero. I had the privilege of seeing a few of the talks and checked the gallery out this Saturday. The show is described by the students as a “way of sharing research and work as designers, programmers, developers, gamers, storytellers, animators and social entrepreneurs. [Their] work is wide ranging but grouped within a variety of themes.”

A really solid and impressive showing this year. Specifically:

Not for Bots, by Kunal D Patel.

Not for Bots is “ a collection of online software that playfully demonstrate how the Internet is shaping human behavior.” As of this writing, there are two Twitter services in the collection: Transito.us and Penultim.it. Check out those links for more info, they essentially both subvert the user’s expectations of URL shortening services.

Pennant by Stephen Varga

Pennant is “an interactive exploration of baseball data that allows users to quickly and accurately recreate and investigate the history of the annual race to be the best team in Major League Baseball.” Really cool iPad app, with awesome data visualization (notice the Tufte inspired Sparklines). Check out the video here for a demo. Should be available in the App Store soon.

Data by Zach Gage

Data is a series of projects that “explore a number of discrepancies surrounding our use of data, and how that use is, or could be, shaping our lives for the better or worse.” They are all worth checking out in detail. My favorite is Lose/Lose, an Asteroids-style shooter game that links enemy ships to files on your computer. Thus, killing enemies slowly destroys the user’s hard drive.

Simplicity isn’t that simple

52weeksofux:

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” —Leonardo Da Vinci

Simplicity, by definition, is freedom from complexity; the absence of luxury or pretentiousness. Sophistication, on the other hand, often implies a sense of style, cultivated beauty and refinement. So is Da Vinci contradicting himself here?

On the contrary. I believe the ultimate level of sophistication happens when the refining process is so complete that there is truly nothing else to add and nothing else to take away; when the nature of a thing is perfectly represented and understood by its state and appearance. To behold it is to know and understand it.

This may seem overly philosophical, but as my co-author, Josh Porter, said recently, “Simplicity is much more than the trite “less is more” we so often hear. Simplicity is… about clarity.” And clarity comes from constant refinement.

John Maeda’s First Law of Simplicity states: The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. Refinement that is thoughtful, calculated, and whenever possible and appropriate, based on data is one of the fundamental tools of any designer.

Anyone who occupies themselves with the task of creating truly usable products becomes instantly aware that achieving simplicity is not that simple. For any single feature in a product we must take into account the way it looks, the way it functions, its place in the overall system, affordances to help convey context of how and why it is to be used, as well as taking into account the motivation of the user.

Designers are in a constant process of weighing each decision against previous ones, against common conventions and against the user’s goals in order to create an interface, a product or a service that is clear in all its meaning and function. There is no denying the difficulty in this process. There is a delicate balance between the simplicity of use and the complexity of usefulness. But it is true the product that is clear in its purpose, elegant in its execution and simple in its use will set itself apart from the competition and endear itself to the user.

Designing for simplicity is a process of calculated refinement. 

Elegance and The Art of Less

Matthew E. May:

The singular thought that what isn’t can often be as or more powerful than what is presented me with a completely different view of the world. In fact, it offered an altogether unique reality—and a life-changing one at that. I embarked on the journey I’m still on, in search of solutions that derive maximum effect from minimum means, ideas that are elegant by virtue of their ability to achieve two conflicting goals at once: profound simplicity and surprising power.

It turns out that if you know where to look and what to look for, the “stop doing” strategy can be found at the heart of elegance in a wide range of fields— from the arts to athletics, from manufacturing to architecture, from science to media. Elegance is a widely sought-after quality, and it can take many forms. A few individuals, teams, and companies have become quite adept at exploiting the principle of subtraction to better sculpt their ideas, performances, and lives.

Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers search for theories that explain highly complex phenomena in stunningly simple ways. Artists and designers use white, or “negative,” space to convey visual power. Musicians and composers use pauses—silence—in the score to create dramatic tension. Dancers and elite athletes deliver their maximum performances by minimizing unnecessary exertion. Physicians draw on Occam’s razor principle—or diagnostic parsimony—to find the single cause of a patient’s myriad symptoms, shaving the analysis down from a sea of possibilities to the most likely explanation.

Delightful. Read the full article here, an excerpt from his book In Pursuit of Elegance.

(Full disclosure: I work for frog design, who publish Design Mind).

Wieden + Kennedy for Nike

The blogosphere et al. has been buzzing in the past couple days about a new Nike spot for Tiger Woods, by Portland based ad agency Wieden + Kennedy. In case you haven’t seen it already:

Predictably, the extreme simplicity appeals to me here. Personal opinions about the man aside, I think the commercial is pitch perfect, which is quite a feat considering the circumstances. I seem to be in the minority on this, however. My favorite quote: “I find the use of his dead father’s voice … out of context by definition … grotesque and in some ways more tasteless than his sexual transgressions.”

I’m actually glad this commercial popped up recently, because it gave me an excuse to post another super-simple ad that I’ve been keeping in my back pocket for a while. I believe this comes from Wieden + Kennedy as well, but don’t quote me on that.

Brilliant. All it took was some archival footage and a dash of dramatic irony to create one of the more emotional commercials I’ve ever seen. However, I’d imagine this ad, as with the other one, creates a fairly divisive reaction. What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts over @RussianPencil.

The iPad User Manual

How you know a product is easy to use: when the ‘user manual’ is a single index card.

Bloodbuzz Ohio

A track off the forthcoming album from The National is available as a free download from their website. I really like the way they’ve presented the download options, being as blunt and transparent as possible. Want the 192 kbps version? Download here. Want a bit higher quality plus some artwork? Well, we’re gonna need your email first. Simple and straightforward.

Granted, there is a bit of opacity in that you don’t know what your email address is being used for if you opt for the higher quality download. I assumed it was for the mailing list. But seriously, this is The National we’re talking about. I’d give them my social security number if they asked for it.

PS. Download this track immediately.

37signals

I’ve been meaning to make this post for some time, and their new book, Rework, has eliminated any excuse not to. 37signals is, according to Wikipedia, “a web design company with a self-described focus on usability, simplicity, and clarity in design and writing.”

Both of their books, Getting Real (available for free online) and Rework are essential reads if you are looking for a lean, simple approach to business and design. Some choice passages from Rework:

Underdo your competition. Conventional wisdom says that to beat your competitors, you need to one-up them. If they have four features, you need five (or fifteen, or twenty-five). If they’re spending $20,000, you need to spend $30,000. If they have fifty employees, you need a hundred.
This sort of one-upping, Cold War mentality is a dead end. When you get suckered into an arms race, you wind up in a never-ending battle that costs you massive amounts of money, time, and drive. And it forces you to constantly be on the defensive, too. Defensive companies can’t think ahead; they can only think behind. They don’t lead; they follow.
So what do you do instead? Do less than your competitors to beat them. Solve the simple problems and leave the hairy, difficult, nasty problems to the competition. Instead of one-upping, try one-downing. Instead of outdoing, try underdoing.
[…] Don’t shy away from the fact that your product or service does less. Highlight it. Be proud of it. Sell it as aggressively as competitors sell their extensive feature lists.

I love this philosophy, also from Rework:

There’s a beauty to imperfection. This is the essence of the Japanese principle of wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi values character and uniqueness over a shiny facade. It teaches that cracks and scratches in things should be embraced. It’s also about simplicity. You strip things down and then use what you have. Leonard Koren, author of a book on wabi-sabi, gives this advise: Pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry. Keep things clean and unencumbered but don’t sterilize.*

And of course this gem from Getting Real:

As things progress, don’t be afraid to resist bloat. The temptation will be to scale up. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Just because something gets older and more mature, doesn’t mean it needs to get more complicated.
You don’t have to become an outer space pen that writes upside down. Sometimes it’s ok to just be a pencil. You don’t need to be a swiss-army knife. You can just be a screwdriver.

(Which may or may not have sparked the idea for the name of this blog).

37signals company blog, Signal vs. Noise, is also worth following. And lastly, if you are not the reading type, here is a video of Jason Fried, one of the founders of 37signals, going over the essentials of the company’s ‘less is more’ philosophy:

Simple Watches (A Reprise)

I’ve made a couple posts about simple watches in the past, and a new one recently caught my eye, from designer Denis Guidone:

I can’t imagine a watch being any simpler, and yet retain its core functionality. One could argue that the center dot could be removed, but I believe it’s essential; otherwise, the brain cannot draw the invisible line from the center to the hour or minute dots that create the ‘hands.’ Here is the watch in action, along with a few others.

When I made my initial post about watches, some Twitter followers reasoned that the use of watch in general is unnecessary, as it duplicates the functionality contained on the face of a cell phone. I disagreed, arguing that fumbling with a phone every instance you want to know the time makes for a poor user experience. At least in terms of efficiency, Mr. Maeda’s got my back (via Twitter):

With a wristwatch it takes less than a half second to tell the time. With a mobile (grasping time incl) it’s about three.

(via Dezeen)