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Channel Their

Inner Zen

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

STEVE JOBS, QUOTING LEONARDO DA VINCI

S

implicity is one of the most important concepts in all

Apple designs—from computers, to music players, to

phones, and even to the retail store experience. “As tech-

nology becomes more complex, Apple’s core strength of

knowing how to make very sophisticated technology compre-

hensible to mere mortals is in ever greater demand,”^1 Jobs told

aNew York Times columnist writing a piece about the iPod in

2003.

Apple’s design guru, Jony Ive, was interviewed for the same

New York Times article and noted that Jobs wanted to keep the

original iPod free of clutter and complexity. What the team

removed from the device was just as important as what they

kept in. ‘’What’s interesting is that out of that simplicity, and

almost that unashamed sense of simplicity, and expressing it,

came a very different product. But difference wasn’t the goal. It’s

actually very easy to create a different thing. What was exciting

is starting to realize that its difference was really a consequence

of this quest to make it a very simple thing,”^2 Ive said. According

to Ive, complexity would have meant the iPod’s demise.

Jobs makes products easy to use by eliminating features and

clutter. This process of simplification translates to the way Jobs