John Maeda
The Simplest Telephone
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by John Maeda
The Power of Repetition
In LOS I refer to the work of Artist Mike Nourse in the 4th Law law4();?> as an example of how repetition can be a powerful tool for learning. Nourse took video footage from a press conference by President George Bush before the Iraq war and did a simple thing. He removed all references of "terror," "weapons of mass destruction," and "Iraq," and simply edited all those parts into a single piece of video. The result embodies the kind of strength that is achieved through the power of repeating oneself.
I imagine you could apply the same treatment for most politicians out there and get similar results. Repetition, repetition, repetition. It works. It works. It works.
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by John Maeda
More Deskpats versus Less
I had promised to add more desktop pattern images over winter break but my break never came. Since I was taking so long, reader/designer Bert Mahoney sent me a few desktop patterns to help me finish this task. My fonts were different so I went and did a few more thanks to Bert's encouragement.
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Desktop pattern for a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen (~50kb).
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Desktop pattern for a 16:9 widescreen (~50kb).
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The Third Law time expresses the importance of watching (or at least enjoying) one's springs.
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Desktop pattern for a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen (~50kb).
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Desktop pattern for a 16:9 widescreen (~50kb).
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As I am a fan of all forms of education, my favorite Law remains the Fourth Law learn.
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Desktop pattern for a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen (~50kb). [hc]
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Desktop pattern for a 16:9 widescreen (~50kb). [hc]
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In the Fifth Law differences I mean to express that if there's a yin, there's a yang.
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Desktop pattern for a normal 4:3 aspect ratio screen (~50kb). [hc]
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Desktop pattern for a 16:9 widescreen (~50kb). [hc]
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Keep your eye off the road to become aware of the Sixth Law context, but try not to forget where you're going.
PS Bert selected the colors for Law 3 and Law 4 for me in the examples he had sent. That certainly made it easy for me. Not having to think--that's real simplicity. Thank you Bert!
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by John Maeda
Motivation and Personality
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Before the Web became the basis of our intellectual survival, Abraham Maslow was wondering what really motivates people in the analog world. |
Posted
by John Maeda
Law 4: Learn
Knowledge makes everything simpler.
> Excerpted from Pages 33-34 of my book, The Laws of Simplicity
Operating a screw is deceptively simple. Just mate the grooves atop the screw’s head to the appropriate tip—slotted or Phillips—of a screwdriver. What happens next is not as simple, as you may have noted while observing a child or a woefully sheltered adult turning the screwdriver in the wrong direction.
My children remember this rule through a mnemonic taught by my spouse, “righty tighty, lefty loosy.†Personally I use the analogy of a clock, and map the clockwise motion of the hands to the positive penetration curve of the screw. Both methods are subject to a second layer of knowledge: knowing right versus left, or knowing what direction the hands of a clock turn. Thus operating a screw is not as simple as it appears. And it’s such an apparently simple object!
So while the screw is a simple design, you need to know which way to turn it. Knowledge makes everything simpler . This is true for any object, no matter how difficult. The problem with taking time to learn a task is that you often feel you are wasting time, a violation of the third Law of time. We are well aware of the dive-in-head-ï¬rst approach—“I don’t need the instructions, let me just do it.†But in fact this method often takes longer than following the directions in the manual.
Posted
by John Maeda
![[hc]](http://lawsofsimplicity.com/images/desk/05_1600_1200_hc.jpg){kind=link}
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![[hc]](http://lawsofsimplicity.com/images/desk/06_1600_1200_hc.jpg){kind=link}
![[hc]](http://lawsofsimplicity.com/images/desk/06_1920_1200_hc.jpg){kind=link}