The Hummer and the Mini: Navigating the Contradictions of the New Trend Landscape by Robyn Waters

Author:Robyn Waters
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2006-10-04T18:30:00+00:00

LESS COM PLEXITY: Simply Better

Linda Tischler, in an article for Fast Company magazine titled “The Beauty of Simplicity,” summed up the small idea brilliantly: “Sure, technology has given us many wonderful things—satellite phones, plasma TVs, and online tickets to Machu Picchu. But way too much tech is way too complex. Making it simple is the next big thing.”

Now that’s something that I can relate to. The last time I went to purchase a new cell phone, I was overwhelmed with options. I just wanted one like my old one. Instead I was shown cell phones that took pictures, made movies, connected to the Internet, and could serve as a mini TV, to name just a few extraneous features I wasn’t the least bit interested in.

Granted, there is an elite cohort of techno-geeks who want it all—every feature, every gadget, an option menu a mile long. But most consumers abhor complexity in their gadgets and readily admit they never use the bells and whistles they pay a premium for when buying new products.

“At the time of purchase, people tend to focus on the positive and begin to imagine all the great uses they will get from these new features” says Wharton professor Robert J. Meyer. “But they fail to foresee all the things that will cause them not to use them, such as the difficulty of learning.” In other words, just adding bells and whistles because you can doesn’t always make sense, nor should it. We need to accept the fact that, sometimes, less is more.

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