The Complexity of Simplicity

Its good to have a small sized dust bin in the kitchen. It forces us to clear the garbage frequently which will in turn keep the place free from odor and flies.

A bit of restriction is good to keep things neat and simple. It may look like a shortcoming initially and people may complain, but they will soon get used to the situation and also realize the advantages.

One way to keep things simple in a product is to not allow users to do a lot of things which may make it complicated. But if you HAVE to give the users the ability to do complex operations, the best way is to hide them and let the users explore only if they need are in need of them.

Foremost Formats

Some time back I was talking about how important is to understand the format on which you work on. I was trying to explain how important it is to adapt content from the big web to mobile web by coming up with a format which works well on small devices but convey the same message without losing the core essence. As an example I mentioned the different ad formats; TV, Radio and Print. The best ad would be that which can convey the message best utilizing the format on which it is presented. ie When I look at a print ad I should get the same message which someone else got when he saw it as a TV ad.

TATA Docomo's My Song TV commercial is one of my favorites as it conveys the "Listen to what you want to hear" message by showing a traditional South Indian mom appreciating her daughter's tattoo on her lower back. Its a good example of how you can make an effective ad using humor but its also a good example of how the message fails to convey when it is transfered to another format without adapting to it. What sense does it make when you show a tattoo on a girl's lower back on a billboard with a tagline "My Song"?



Ditto the problem with their "Love just one thing?" ad