Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication

I can't take credit for the title of this post. It's one of Steve Jobs maxims and was used in Apple's first brochure. I also like "less is more" and after reading his autobiography, I liked the fact that he pushed to remove and simplify at every step of product development.

We are constantly told to simplify a product or service but never really told why or how. I particularly liked Jony Ive's philosophy. He said that we like simple products or services because we feel like we can dominate them.

This is a great way to look at it because if we feel like we can dominate them, we are more likely to feel like we are in control and consequently, use them more.

He also said that simplicity isn't just a visual style. It's not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of complexity. To be really simple, you have to go really deep. You have to understand everything about it and it's essence in order to get rid of the parts which are not essential.

When you look at some of the user experiences in software and the web today, you can immediately tell where the the product or service owner has gone deep and where they haven't.

Can you think of any examples where you can tell? Let me know.