“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the byproduct of a good idea and modest expectations.”

Paul rand

There are lots of influential design quotes about simplicity, and lord knows we all get beat over the head with the idea that good design is inherently simple enough to make us all sick. That’s why I love this quote from Paul Rand. It’s a reminder that simplicity is not a goal, but it can be a yardstick.

Good design is often very simple, but it’s not the simplicity that makes it good, it is just the evidence that you’re successful. It means you’ve appropriately paired a solution to a set of expectations.

I use this as a rubric a lot when I’m working. I develop a solution, and if it’s feeling too complex, I think to myself, “Is this a bad idea, or are my expectations too high?” It could be both. Many times it is.

I also think about this when I’m just using a product and run into what seems like a needlessly complicated feature. It seems a lot of us (designers, of all disciplines) are putting an awful lot of work into overcoming very reasonable objections to problems we’ve created with either a bad idea or inflated expectations.