#Your keep it simple software

The simpler the explanation and the simpler the product, the more likely it is that the output will be useful to others. They care about being able to take that person’s output and make it useful to their own lives. It was Albert Einstein who said “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.” Though it is often mis-reported as being “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough.” What Einstein was driving at was a particular application of “keep it simple, stupid”.įrom scientific concepts to products the end-user doesn’t care how clever the creator or designer of something is. As such, the KISS principle speaks to flowing with the intuition of any new user, easing in nuances with care. Examples are “Keep it short and simple” and “Keep it simple and straightforward.” Though both phrases technically introduce an “A” into the acronym, they both deliver the same message as “Keep it simple, stupid.” The objective of any process is to deliver the simplest possible outcome. The KISS principle also exists in other variations with the same meaning. In the case of designing for mobile devices-where the users’ context finds them operating their phones with their fingers, often with one hand-this philosophy is even more vital to follow. In the world of user experience design and related disciplines, the KISS principle borrows from such a scenario in that users who tend to lead busy lives will quickly abandon a complex design. If their products weren’t simple and easy to understand, they would not only cost lives but also quickly become obsolete in combat conditions and thus worthless. Johnson told the designers at Lockheed that their designs should be simple enough to be repaired by a man in a combat situation with only some basic mechanic’s training and simple tools. The term was first used in the US Navy and is thought to have been coined by Kelly Johnson, who was the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works.

#Your keep it simple software

KISS is used in a variety of disciplines, such as interface design, product design, and software development.

Wherever possible, complexity should be avoided in a system-as simplicity guarantees the greatest levels of user acceptance and interaction. Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) is a design principle which states that designs and/or systems should be as simple as possible.