Simplicity Rules

I’ve noticed a few books and magazines lately doing something truly useful with their cover and jacket blurbs. They tell you which page to turn to.

Made to Stick lists some topics, then invites you to open the book to a page where you’ll find an example of the topic. Where I might read the jacket of most books and then put them down, this one dares me to investigate. It gives me a path of least resistance.

This Kiplinger’s cover does the same thing. Rather than just plaster the front with headlines, which requires searching for the table of contents, they give you the page number.

It’s such an obvious method, I’m not sure why other publishers don’t do it. When I see an article that interests me and I know I can turn directly to it, I am engaging with the book or magazine. Who wouldn’t want that? An engaged reader is more likely to buy and is a better sell for the ads (in the case of a magazine).

Why make them remain lost? Why not point them in a few directions and take a chance at engaging them? And all you have to do it put a little number next to a blurb or headline you’re already writing.

To convert this lesson to something usable on the web, see The Page Paradigm.

There’s a saying that says “there’s a fine line between love and hate.” Similarly, when I run my hand under ice cold water, it sometimes feels hot. Opposites are not as different as it might seem.

I’ve struggled to see how simplicity and complexity were similar. They need each other, but they still feel like extremes on a continuum, far more different than same.

One thing that simplicity and complexity have in common is that they each can be both positive and negative. How you view it depends on your perspective and the context.

The reason I had not seen the similarities before was that I had been comparing a positive interpretation of simplicity to the negative version of complexity. When viewed from the same perspective, there is a lot more in common.

In the positive sense, both simplicity and complexity provide a surprise that impresses people. The negative versions are merely frustrating.

I love when simple solutions are the answer, especially in the real world. Back in September I attended Seattle Open Coffee and met a guy who helps market a product I will be buying the next time I need to paint something.

I hate the cleanup after painting. The last few times, I have to admit, I resorted to just tossing the brushes.

The EZ Clean Paintbrush has a hollow handle to which you can attach a garden hose to clean it. In under a minute (there’s a video here), the bristles are clean and so are your hands.

Pet peeve solved.

I loved watching new people join the conversation and see his product. Everyone just gets it. It’s sort of like the brownie pan for corner lovers, it’s immediately obvious. That’s the power of a simple product.

Since I’ve never worked for a company with more than about 50 employees, I’m probably biased when I say that big company simplicity is rarely simple, or good. My hunch is this is because they “boardroom” the idea until it is complex, even while pretending to be otherwise.

During my Ignite Portland presentation, I mentioned IBM’s Create Simplicity campaign as an example of this unfortunate trend.

Choose three animals, mix them together, and get something better. I don’t see the simplicity in a butterfly-ostrich-rhino combination. The point is supposed to be that their new Lotus Notes is a hybrid of other tools, all in one place. To me that sounds like feature creep, not simplicity. And I’m not sure the butterostrhino is the best way to communicate it.

I suppose CreateSimplicity.com has the pieces of a successful microsite, but it just feels icky.

I’m sure there are great examples of big companies that can find simplicity. Certainly the company that makes my laptop is one example. But all too often the projects that are supposed to be simple end up conflicted by compromise and looking a bit too much like three animals stapled together.

Thanks to His Duffiness for sending this site to me.

Last week the BestPlaces team pulled together a small, simple site to help people gain a big insight into drought in the U.S. with DroughtScore.

The site takes a city name or zip code as input and spits back a score, based on 100 being normal. For example, Portland is 107.2, mild drought.

DroughtScore is a microsite, which I’ve in the past called
one trick ponies. I mean it as a compliment. By focusing on a single purpose, it helps communicate only what is important to the user. With DroughtScore, I hope we found the sticky substance.

Try it out with your town.

My favorite presentation of the year is now available in a full slides + audio version, and I have also embedded it below.

Experience is the Product by Peter Merholz

What is the most important thing you can tell me about your project, web site, company, or self? The ability to find the core is as important when describing a project as it is in planning one.

Made to Stick is essentially a book about communicating ideas. You need to find the central point that matters–the substance. Then make it sticky–memorable.

A message that is “made to stick” has two properties:

1. core
2. compact

The core is the central essence, the most important aspect. Compact is how you need to describe it. Made to Stick suggests using a proverb, a short phrase that is easy to remember and share.

A few examples from the book:

• Southwest Airlines: “THE low-fare airline.” This helps employees remember that extra costs cut into maintaining their place, the greatest example of which helped an employee decide not to offer customers chicken salad. An approach I don’t necessarily agree with, but the message is certainly simple
• Local newspapers: “Names, names, names.” If you are reporting for a small-town paper, printing names of residents is the most important thing.
• Clinton’s 1992 campaign: “It’s the economy stupid.” James Carville reduced the campaign to one point and told the future president, “if you say three things, you say nothing.”

Much of this post comes from the first chapter of Made to Stick, “Simple.” With a name like that, I had to love this book. Lots of great examples, actionable no matter what you do, because who couldn’t benefit from communicating their ideas better?