Have a Simple Valentine's Day!

Flower shops, card stores, jewellery shops, everything is going crazy today for Valentine's Day. The big day of the year to show your loved ones how much you love them. And come to think of it, why would you object to it? We celebrate our birth, the new year, someone else's birth, why shouldn't we celebrate our love?

That doesn't mean though that we have to turn it into a consumption festival. The most important presents are those that come from the heart. When I was thinking of what to do for my wife I decided to go old-school and remind us of our childhood. I printed a design of a pop-up card, got my crafting tools together and spent half an hour yesterday making it. Simple, fun, cool and meaningful.

Once it was ready I hid it and left it this morning on her pillow. Her reaction was exactly what I expected to a present that came from the heart.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

It's the Most Commercial Time of the Year

Either now or in the past we've all gone through this period thinking how much is enough and how we can find a good balance. My advice would be to always simplify and focus on what's important.

When it comes to gifts, focus on the most important part of the gift which is who you are giving it to and how you can make it more personal. It's not about the cost (spend what you can afford), it's about creating a stronger bond with the person you are giving it to. Do something that is personal and even better something that you can enjoy together.

For decorations, less is more. You can easily get carried away and create a Christmas Decoration Monster. The essentials will do and some xmas accents in your everyday decor will be more than enough.

For your lunches and dinners, why exactly do you need that much? For some reason we have got into a mentality that during Christmas we need to double our quantities and calorie intakes. Instead, put that energy into making the best of the things you have planned.

I've been applying these practices for the past couple of years and they have really helped me. I hope they do the same for you.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Simplicity is Naturalness

"For simplicity to be simple, it needs to be natural, almost unnoticeable. It can't be contrived or forced. The meticulous garden calls attention to itself by virtue of its meticulousness."

- John Daido Loori from The Zen of Creativity

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

For Those Who Don't Know...

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

What Facebook Does That You Don't

About a month ago, Facebook introduced their new Video Calling feature. When you look at how it works and the features, it's obvious that they have focused on simplifying the experience of video calling.

Here are some points that show how they have made the experience simpler:

• There are no controls. Apart from the very basic full screen, minimise and close everything has been removed. This is to ensure that the interface is as simple as possible and there is no confusion on what you can do during the call.
• Video window is at the top. When you first start the call the video starts just beneath the camera, this helps you have some eye contact with the other person by looking at an area closer to the camera.
• Your picture is not in the way of the call. Your picture, which is usually placed in the call window, is so small that while it's there it doesn't become your centre of attention.
• The only active window is the video call window. While you are on a video call you cannot do anything else on facebook. This makes for a better interaction as it focuses your attention on the call and not at browsing pages and profiles.

Overall the lead designer, Rob Mason, has applied several simplicity principles to create an interface that is easy to use, innovative and creates a better experience. One thing that you will notice is that he had to sacrifice certain features to make the ones that are important easier to use. What we are left with is a service that works as it should and moves the focus to the call you are having and not to the bells and whistles.

Take Facebook's example and simplify. In order to be innovative you need to have the guts to sacrifice certain features in favour of the more essential ones.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Feature Creep

We do everything to please our customers. Sometimes trying to please all of their needs can end up against our original goals. Usually we try to help people by adding the features that they have requested. These features that end up creeping up into our product or service can make it very complex and difficult to use.

You need to be very selective about what features to add, especially when you review the product. Because a customer asked for it, isn't necessary a reason to add it. If everyone that has used your product is asking for a certain feature, then you probably need to look into it. But if only a few of your customers want one feature, you need to be very thorough in identifying if this feature will add benefit to all your customers.

If you are also working on a project that has been going on for some time, it is worth spending some time to review what features you have. A feature that was essential in the past might not be useful any more. You need to continuously review and remove any feature that are not useful. This will allow you to have a simpler version that works well.

Feature creep is a disease, if you get it you need to be very careful about what features you end up adding to your product. Be selective and only add those that bring value to your product and customers.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Scene is Set, Time to Do the Work! #SimplicityDay2011

We have now confirmed the venue, which will be the Centre for Creative Collaboration, where we will have a big room to fit around 50-70 people. This gives us the opportunity to have a bigger celebration than last year!

As we wanted this time to do something different, we decided to create a new product which we will launch on the day. Those of you that will be attending will have the chance to experience it first hand and give us your feedback before it goes to production. All I can say at the moment is, think of something complex that needs to be simplified and bring it with you on the day.

We will be preparing the registration page soon and the readers of this blog will get priority for the tickets.

See you all then!

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Teachings of Teaism

To understand simplicity you need to start looking at different and unusual places. One of the best books I've read that helped me understand the value of simplicity, is The Book of Tea by Kazuko Okakura.

The book of tea was first published over 100 years ago and gives a detailed overview of the art of tea making, the tea ceremony and everything that is related to it. Teaism is all about being in the moment and enjoying the present, understanding teaism can help you understand the value of simplicity.

One of the most important teachings comes from the chapter on the Tea-Room. Simplicity and purism are essential when designing a tea room. A tea room is essentially vacant with very little ornamentation. This allows for better focus on what you choose to put in the room for the specific occasion. There is no clutter and as a result the focus and attention is drawn to what you bring into the room.

The above can be applied to anything that has to do with visual communication and drawing people's attention. Avoid clutter at all cost, keep it vacant and add only what's important.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

The Void

What do you do when you are faced with a void? An empty canvas, page, screen, document or space. Our instincts tell us that we need to fill it up, not leave any space empty. We think that by this we are creating more value and communicating everything that is important.

This is far from reality. The more things we put in the empty space, the more crowded it becomes. It's usually easy to realise this when we are looking at a physical space, like an empty room. When it comes to two dimensional spaces and non-physical spaces we feel that hoarding is a good thing.

The reality is that the more things you put into something, the more complicated and crowded it becomes. As a result, people won't be able to understand what is important and what you are trying to communicate. 

Treat an empty space with great care and be very careful about what you put in. Be selective with the ideas that you want to communicate and the items you put into it. You need to create something that is simple, easy to understand and communicates clearly your thoughts and ideas.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis 

Say it Simply

Because of my interest and studies in computer engineering, I learnt from a young age, that if I wanted people to engage with me I had to talk about my interests simply and in a language that people understand.

Having studied in a field that is full of technical terms, jargon and acronyms, I know how difficult this can sometimes be. The way that universities studies are structured actually makes this worse, since you always have to write using all the possible terms and in a language that is not easy to understand. As one of my old lecturers told me a few days ago "Academics write for academics". As a result, when the time comes for us to talk to people about our passion, invention, innovation or product we start using terms that people don't understand.

Of course using terms and jargon when speaking to your peer group and people in your field is fine, as they will understand you. However, when you speak to the general public and people outside your field you need to be able to express your knowledge in common language and terms. If you do this, you will have people's attention and they will engage with you.

Here is an example that I came across on Apple's website:

Integrated memory controller.
With faster access to memory, each core can get straight to work on your data, rather than waiting for it to arrive. That’s why the new Intel Core architecture uses an integrated memory controller to connect fast 1333MHz memory directly to the processor. Together with up to 8MB of shared L3 cache, the integrated memory controller helps your applications run at peak performance.

Here is how the same controller is described on Intel's website:

Feed more data to the processor with the integrated memory controller
The Intel® Core™ i7 processors incorporate an integrated memory controller which handles the data flow between main memory and the execution engine. This means faster access time to memory and less latency for requests. Now applications can feed more data to the processor and you can spend less time waiting for results.

Do you see the difference? The first explains the technology as simply as possible, so people can understand why this makes a difference. In the second example, and because the intel website is not consumer focused the technology is explained in more technical terms.

We know you have the knowledge and that you are good at your job, but you need to be able to communicate this to your audience. The only way that you can grab people's attention and engage them is by speaking to them in a language that they understand. Speak as simply as possible and people will listen.

Posted by Harry Mylonadis