I’ve always been a believer in the KISS acronym: Keep it Simple Stupid. It seems to me a good guiding principle in many things: design, development, research, composition, writing.
However, I sometimes find myself at odds with KISS — there are many problems that require inherently complex solutions and can’t be simplified. I also agree with the sentiment of this article, which argues that striving for simplicity is based on an illogical premise and that good design is what we really need to aim for. So if KISS doesn’t work as a universal guiding principle, what does?
Enter KIMACS: Keep it Minimal and Complete Stupid! It originates from a critique of 37signals TadaList software on the kindproject blog and it really strikes a chord with me. It’s a kind of acronym version of the famous Albert Einstein quote: “everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”, and I like this a lot.
KIMACS acknowledges that a design can’t be simultaneously simple and complex, and that a little complexity might not be such a bad thing if it means meeting the ‘completeness’ criteria. It also implies that applying KISS principles literally, can result in simple but incomplete design.
In conclusion, I think that in most situations KISS is the right approach, however from now on I’ll be tempering my KISS with a subtle hint of KIMACS!
; "Eigenharp Alpha")
; "T-mobile G1")
; "Braun Screenshot")
; "Jamie")
As an addendum to this, I should add that I actually disagree with the original kindproject blog post. I think that TadaList really is KIMACS and not KISS (Keep it Stupidly Simple)!