Sunday, October 5, 2008

Simplicity/Complexity

1. Simplicity and complexity clearly contributes to Visceral, Behavioral, and Reflective design is some way. I feel that both simplicity and complexity are evident in both visceral and reflective but I think that more times complexity is used. There are some visceral and reflective design that could be fairly simple and they can help someone express themselves. For the most part tho Complexity is more popular. People are looking for things that are flashy and can express themselves more. I think that with behavioral design simplicity should be a bigger part of that design, but I feel that complexity now is used more often. I feel that people think that complexity is better with products just because it can do more functions, but I think that things would be a lot easier if simplicity was used more often. I think that it all depends on the product and what people think is best when it comes to simplicity and complexity.

2. Sometimes complex things can be more more desirable. One thing that comes to my mind is my friend's microwave. It is a really cool microwave that can do all of these different options. It has a toaster on it plus all of these really fancy buttons. The first time I tried to use the machine I could not even get it started. Once i figured it out i learned how to use the basic toaster and the microwave features but not much else. I still would like to get that microwave but not anytime soon.

When I bought my first cell phone as a freshman in high school I picked out a phone because the complexity of it made it more desirable. The screen of the phone could turn 180 degrees which, it turned out, served no real purpose; however, when I was in the store looking at phones it looked the coolest.

I picked these two passages by Andy and Kenny because they both had to deal with complexity. They both had desired something because of the complexity of the product and thought that the looks were very cool. With Andy's post he talks about it being complex and how he could not even get the thing started the first time, but he learned the basic features and nothing else. I think that many people do this now a days, instead of learning how to do everything a product does they just learn the basics meaning that simplicity would have been a better choice. With Kenny's post he talks about his cell phone that looked cool and the phone did something that had no real purpose. This is also being done more often with purchases of products. People often buy stuff just for looks or something cool that it can do instead of other important features. I think that complexity is not always the best thing, but it seems like everything is becoming more complex in today's society.

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