Have you ever pioneered a quicker way to get somewhere than by following Siri’s directions?
Discovered an ingenious way to shorten the time it takes you to get ready for work, or the kids out the door, in the morning?
What about creating a clever system for accomplishing your work tasks in a simpler, more effective manner?
If you have, then you’ve applied a theory called Occam’s Razor to your life probably without even realizing it.
Over 600 years ago, a guy named William of Ockham (c. 1287-134) was doing some pretty heavy thinking about God and decided that when it comes to the miraculous, the simplest reason for the miracle is the best.
The actual latin phrase for his principle of economy is lex parsimoniae – or, that the simplest answer to a problem is most likely the right one. The ‘razor‘ part is actually not in Ockham’s work, but became associated with it later by the popular use of conceptualizing the “shaving away” of assumptions in a set of hypotheses.
The razor was eventually applied to other areas of theory, including biology, medicine, ethics, probability, statistics and…
Wait for it…
That’s right. Occam’s razor has become a tool used in many types of design, but is especially effective when leveraged on the world wide web.
It’s all about empowering people to access your product or ideas simply, and without complication. When you are a small business, you have to do whatever you can to remove the barriers and divergent pathways that keep the customer at bay from your product.
One of the most direct ways of effectively engaging customers is through a well designed website. But, if your website is cluttered or hard to navigate, your business will suffer, and that is never good. It’s been said, “Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” – Brian Reed
Simple design is better design.
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