I added the term "simplexity" to Wikipedia a while back. It was a battle, (it was deleted a couple of times because no one had written an official "book" that mentioned the term -- It was declined for being "proto-language".
There are many different understandings of the term and I have found instances of it as far back as the 1930's (in a book - but that was a different definition than the one that we're thinking about now.) I documented most of the instances I found at the time in Wikipedia.
In a blog posting titled: "Simplexity: Simplicity layered on top of complexity" I proposed a definition from my perspective as a designer who often faces the challenge of designing user interfaces to hide complexity under simple interfaces.
There's another blog posting called: "Simplexity: Simple AND Complex." This posting went further to suggest that there may be a "cycle of simplexity".
In that posting I also proposed the concept: "Conceptual Simplexity" - which poses the idea that simplexity can also be thought of as a problem-solving tool.
Here's a project idea: a forum where design-related neologisms can be proposed. This way we don't have to rely on slow-systems like Wikipedia and mass-media publishers to canonize the new term.
bravo!
Mirgen Dhima - November 18, 2008
congratulations! you really grabbed my attention and inspired me!
(and I took notes ...)
A short history of simplexity
Daniel Montano - November 19, 2008
I added the term "simplexity" to Wikipedia a while back. It was a battle, (it was deleted a couple of times because no one had written an official "book" that mentioned the term -- It was declined for being "proto-language".
There are many different understandings of the term and I have found instances of it as far back as the 1930's (in a book - but that was a different definition than the one that we're thinking about now.) I documented most of the instances I found at the time in Wikipedia.
In a blog posting titled: "Simplexity: Simplicity layered on top of complexity" I proposed a definition from my perspective as a designer who often faces the challenge of designing user interfaces to hide complexity under simple interfaces.
There's another blog posting called: "Simplexity: Simple AND Complex." This posting went further to suggest that there may be a "cycle of simplexity".
In that posting I also proposed the concept: "Conceptual Simplexity" - which poses the idea that simplexity can also be thought of as a problem-solving tool.
Here's a project idea: a forum where design-related neologisms can be proposed. This way we don't have to rely on slow-systems like Wikipedia and mass-media publishers to canonize the new term.
chb
admin - November 21, 2008
I know of a Japanese design book with the term in it! I'll try to find it. . .
classic
andrew f. - December 17, 2008
"simplexity" is my new mantra
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