"We're drowning in functionality," John Maeda says, noting the deluge of dials, buttons, and sliders on everything from cars to cell phones. His lifeboat? Ten less-is-more rules for contemporary design. The MIT Media Lab prof's new book, The Laws of Simplicity, offers koanlike insights, from the practical (Google always keeps complexity far from the user) to the philosophical (the buttons on an iPod generate an ingeniously simpleminded gestalt). And as Maeda points out, some brands get it, and others don't have a clue. Wired asked him to apply his rules to Sony's DCR-SR100 camcorder. Turns out, it breaks almost every law in the book (click left-hand image).
– Bob Parks
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Intelligent Design
