Breaking the Laws of Simplicity

In the September 2006 issue of Wired, MIT's John Maeda applies his Laws of Simplicity to a Sony video camera. The results aren't pretty, and include this assessment of the device's 130+ pages of documentation:

Based on the other commentary Maeda made, this product is anything but simple to use, but it does seem that the manual's author missed the opportunity to present the camera in its best light. When a complex product is accompanied by a cumbersome manual, it is sure to reinforce how difficult the product is to use. Perhaps Madea's idea about putting the manual online would result in a useful distillation, but more likely it would be ignored as unsalvageable.

Posted: November 25, 2006 link to this item, Tweet this item, respond to this item