Be an Elegant Simplifier

In mathematics and physics, there's a common belief that truth and elegance go hand in hand, and the simplest choice is most likely the best. That holds true in daily life too, especially in design.

In this article, Kate Clayton argues that designers should be elegant simplifiers. She makes a good case, using her experience in the health care industry for examples.

Transparent design doesn’t mean a solution can’t be complex. At Penn, physician-researcher Shreya Kangovi’s community health worker model, IMPACT, is built from a decade of randomized controlled trials, grants, and iterations. Yet the design is a clear, straightforward workflow for nonclinicians to treat underlying determinants of health. In the school of engineering, designer Bethany Edwards created Lia, a flushable pregnancy test, which appears to be a simple paper product, the equivalent of 6 squares of toilet paper. Yet it incorporates demanding design criteria of being discreet, flushable, biodegradable, and accurate. Both designs now also have the outcome of being disruptive.