In a complex world, products that are easy to use win favor with consumers. This is the first book on the topic of simplicity aimed specifically at interaction designers. It shows how to drill down and simplify user experiences when designing digital tools and applications. It begins by explaining why simplicity is attractive, explores the laws of simplicity, and presents proven strategies for achieving simplicity. Remove, hide, organize and displace become guidelines for designers, who learn simplicity by seeing before and after examples and case studies where the results speak for themselves.

The first printer I bought was a fussy device. Setting it up involved fitting together several parts and going on an extra trip into town because the correct cable wasn’t included. When I returned, I had to read my computer’s manual to check some hardware settings, open up the printer case, and use a paperclip to set some switches to match. After a few tries I got it right. Then I had to install driver software onto the computer. The whole process took hours of mistakes, cursing, and painstaking work.

The same could be said of any number of encounters with technology over the years: setting up a mobile phone, plugging a laptop into a plasma display, or reading a webpage that takes three screens and 113 links to tell me the weather. Technology that is supposed to make our lives easier often feels like it’s on the march against us.

This year I bought a new printer for my home. The setup process was: take it out of the box, remove the orange sticky tape that was holding the delicate parts in place, pop in the cartridge, and switch it on. At which point the printer informed me that it would like to join my WiFi network and could it have a password, please? And that was it. The printer and my computer got along just fine. Setting up a new printer seemed as simple as plugging in a new radio.

It left me thinking: why can’t it always be like this?

It’s not the first time I’ve asked that question. I’ve spent my career trying to make technology simple. The problem is that a lot of advice on simplicity is rather vague: “less is more” and all that. So I’ve tried to find some strategies that seem to work, and real examples and stories to share.