Design Week, 26.4.07 (profile, mentioning book, by Liz Farrelly)
"this is a must-read for all creative practitioners. The book is beautiful - complete with iconic graphics and perfect packaging - and unlike self-help tomes that simultaneously bore readers with fictitious `true life' tales while attempting to shame them into action, Maeda's gentle honesty about the difficulties he faces in dealing with the same issues as the rest of us is refreshing and approachable. .... While his previous books attempt to explain what he does, this book tells us how he thinks."
Review
"If brevity is the soul of wit, simplicity is the soul of design. John Maeda uses the concept of simplicity to get at the nature of human thought and perception while drawing out tangible applications for business, technology, and life in general. *The Laws of Simplicity* is thoroughly optimistic, entertaining, and erudite, just as you would expect from Maeda. It is also the most compelling one hundred pages of design writing I have read this year." -- Rob Forbes, Founder, Design Within Reach " Abstract recommends this book particularly to marketing people, product designers and technical writers." -- GetAbstract "FINALLY, a book about simplicity that is not too academic to read... At the book's heart is the Shinto belief in animism, the spirit in all objects. Nicholas Negroponte, one of Maeda's mentors, once told him to become a lightbulb, not a laser beam. This he has done; all this and more." -- Susan Salter Reynolds, The LA Times "I planned to skim/sample John Maeda's book, then decide to endorse it -- or not. I quickly found myself mesmerized -- and thence the only issue was deciding what were the strongest words I could muster in support of The Laws of Simplicity. The book is important; and Maeda has made an absurdly complex subject -- simplicity -- approachable and usable. Bravo! I hope the people who design the products I'll acquire in the next ten years take this book to heart." -- Tom Peters "John Maeda's new book, The Laws of Simplicity, is simply terrific. It's exactly 100 pages, the illustrations are brilliant and the 10 Laws of Simplicity (plus Three Keys) are a canon to design one's entire life, much less specific products, services or business models. The subtitle is: Design, Technology, Business, Life." -- Bruce Nussbaum, BusinessWeek's blog "NussbaumOnDesign" "Keep it simple, Stupid" is an old piece of advice, so much so that it's often abbreviated as the "KISS principle." But it's advice that's often ignored, and MIT Professor John Maeda aims to change that... Designers and marketers will find Maeda's book both interesting and useful..." -- New York Post "Maeda's Laws and Keys have an obvious practical application in everyday running of a busy life (and desktop); they also have the potential to translate into a productive methodology for any craft or design practice... A very humble, enlightened and caring human, John's written a little bible." -- Liz Farrelly, Crafts Magazine "Maeda's upbeat explanations usefully break down the power of less-fewer features, fewer buttons and fewer distractions-while providing practical strategies for harnessing that power... Emphasizing the delicate balance-work involved in simplifying the complex, Maeda admits the process isn't easy, and that his ten laws don't necessarily provide all the answers-in numerous places, he directs readers to the web site where his theories continue to develop. Despite that, this slim book feels complete in itself; not only will it stimulate ideas, it will keep readers thumbing back for a second and third look at Maeda's deceptively simple advice." -- Publishers Weekly "Technology and life seem to be getting more complicated, yet two great success stories, Google and the iPod, both provide the antidote of simplicity. In The Laws of Simplicity, John Maeda uses humble prose to provide an accessible guide, business and life, observing the principle: 'Simplicity equals sanity.'" -- David Smith, The Observer "I planned to skim/sample John Maeda's book, then decide to endorse it -- or not. I quickly found myself mesmerized -- and thence the only issue was deciding what were the strongest words I could muster in support of *The Laws of Simplicity*. The book is important; and Maeda has made an absurdly complex subject -- simplicity -- approachable and usable. Bravo! I hope the people who design the products I'll acquire in the next ten years take this book to heart." -- Tom Peters
