Simplicity in Design

At times, I use the white board at my workstation to scribble interesting quotes that appeal to me. A few weeks ago, I wrote this one:

"There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. (Charles Hoare)."

The quote led to an interesting discussion amongst the ones who read it. The curious question was – what is ‘simple’ design. I pondered for a while. I knew that simplicity was far complex than I thought. I wanted to understand what is means to have simplicity in content design, media design, functional design, web design, and any other design that we ought to do! So I started my journey to explore what is simple design…here is what I found on my way. An interesting definition.

This is an excerpt taken from an article titled, “Keep it simple, stupid!” by Pär Almqvist.

A Definition of Simplicity
"What is simplicity? It could be defined as "the absence of unnecessary elements," or even shorter "the essence." Simplicity doesn't equal boring. Simplicity doesn't equal shallow. Simplicity is especially important when designing information- and media-rich interfaces. Simplicity isn't a design style, it's a perspective on design, an approach which often creates the most beautiful and the most usable results. A common mistake is to think that obtaining simplicity is a matter of reduction, of reducing something which is more complete than the "simple" end result. On the contrary, simplicity requires serious thought and effort. As I wrote in my article Fragments of time; "A modern paradox is that it's simpler to create complex interfaces because it's so complex to simplify them."

How to Obtain Simplicity
Simplicity isn't easy to obtain. I have, however, roughly devised a formula that lays the foundation for simplicity. Albert Einstein said; "If A is to succeed in life, then A = x + y + z. Work is x, y is play and z is to listen.
"A functioning formula for simplicity (where A equals simplicity) could be A = x + y + z. x is good research and prototyping, y is play and z is the reduction of unnecessary elements."

In the above definition, the author reiterates that simplicity requires thought and effort. Another example to support this definition is here, where the author (Nika Smith) discusses the evolution of Gmail chat and specifically how the Gmail chat window was designed.

The author reiterates, “Often, the features we launch seem so simple that you might think they're the result of blatantly obvious design decisions. In fact, every feature is subjected to a healthy dose of scrutiny within the Gmail team, and usually that includes rapidly iterating on designs by collecting user feedback, learning what works and what doesn't, and improving on our work based on this knowledge.”

From what I gathered, I believe simple designs:-
- appear intuitive and easy to make - but they take time to build
- involve multiple iterations of review and feedback
- are meant for the purpose (meet requirements)
- are naturally usable
- have more impact because they have less distractions

I hope to continue on this journey towards simple designs. I may have to infact start with my life first - as the teachings of Zen highlight - "try and do less each day" to make a move towards simplicity!

New Work Literacies - Leading the Way

This months Learning Circuits question is who takes the leadership role around new work literacies. Specifically: - Should workplace learning professionals be leading the charge around these new work literacies? -Shouldn't they be starting with themselves and helping to develop it throughout the organizations? -And then shouldn't the learning organization become a driver for the organization? - And like in the world of libraries don't we need to market ourselves in this capacity?

I agree with all these questions and my response is a whole-hearted YES. Yes, I am responsible for all of this. I was a bit surprised that we are debating about these because somehow, I never thought anyone else is going to be doing this in my organization! Yes, I, as a learning professional would like to lead the charge around these new work literacies. Yes, I have started with myself and hope to help it develop in my organization. Yes, I take the responsibility to drive the use of the new work literacies and yes, just for libraries and everything else in life – I need to market this too.

As a learning professional, I expect myself to introduce my organization to all new in learning - new tools and technologies included. In that sense, yes, I lead the way. But I don’t want to be a consultant who doesn’t know what she’s talking. I don’t want to be a learning professional who is sitting on the fence and talking about new tools and technologies and hasn’t used any! So, I use and experiment with these technologies in my own way – for example, I write my own blog, contribute to group blogs, use Wiki and Google to learn, have an identity on facebook, and an avtar in second life – I am trying to try it all – to experience, explore, and learn, and to share my learning with my organization. While I explore these to develop my own personal learning environment, I hope to help my organization use some of these and develop them as learning opportunities available to everyone in my organization. I feel, that somewhere, somehow, the learning revolution and acceptance of new tools and technologies has to start with me – as an individual. Unless I try to explore the possibilities, I will never be able to build a business case around the use of these technologies for the organization as a whole. So, yes, I lead the charge, start with myself, and hope to develop it for my organization.

Now about the learning organization being the driver for the organization. Well, yes – but only when learning is aligned to the organizational goals, it can really drive anything! For the organization to trust the learning professionals and consider us as ‘learning advisors’, it is important that we as learning professionals are aware of what we can bring forth to the table. We need to know what is happening in the learning world and what can we do to help our organization make correct, well thought-about learning decisions – which positively impact the business decisions. Our real value lies in helping the organization grow better, faster. The new tools and technologies can serve as stepping-stones to this path of success.

About marketing – well, in today’s world everything needs to be marketed! I feel, we are all salespersons and we are all in the business of selling our thoughts. We do it all the time, whether we know it or not. So, yes, to develop the tools and technologies and help them become new work literacies, I will need to market them. I have started small – market my own blog, share learning links with teams, talk about emerging trends learning in forums, and discussions, and over coffee conversations. I also have realized that all marketing becomes easy when the consumer sees the value of the product/service. Therefore, as a learning professional, I am striving to arrive at the value of everything that I propose to my organization including the new tools and technologies.

So, whether it is initiating formal learning, informal learning, Web 2.0 or anything else and everything else to do with learning – I willingly take the responsibility for leading the change – for myself, and my organization.

Second Life - For this life or the next?

The June 2008 Big Question from Learning Circuits is around Second Life Training.
More specifically: - In what situations, do you believe it makes sense to develop a learning experience that will be delivered within Second Life? -If you were to develop a training island in Second Life, what kind of environment and artifacts would you consider essential for teaching? -Just as there are considerable differences in blended learning and virtual classroom training, what are some of the major differences (surprises) in training within virtual worlds?

Well, I haven't experienced Second Life as closely as I would like to. However, from my experience and some reading/skimming about Second Life, I have an opinion to share.
To identify whether I should develop a training experience using Second Life, I had to think and jot down the USPs of Second Life and compare them to the methods that I am more used to! So, in terms of being different, Second Life is more:

1) Immersive - be a part of the learning intervention

2) Non-threating - be whatever you want to be - avatars can take you anywhere

3) Collaborative - be with others and learn together

4) Constructivist - be responsible for your own learning

Considering these as relevant elements that I could leverage in creating a training intervention, I suppose Second Life renders itself well to specific learning outcomes that revolve around ‘doing’, ‘analyzing’, ‘applying’, ‘synthesizing’, ‘problem-solving’, ‘decision-making’ etc. As you can notice, I am traveling along a continuum of higher-order, far transfer skills that are usually difficult to teach within the traditional classroom environment or plain vanilla elearning. Here are some examples where I think I could use Second Life:

1) For training that involves developing skills in working with equipment (expensive, difficult, and possibly threating in real-life) for example, engineers who need to learn to troubleshoot and repair faulty printers. In a typical classroom environment, it is rather difficult to produce faulty printers for each session (across the world) and definitely difficult to have one faulty printer per student! But in Second Life, that’s possible. Infact the learner can completely tear down a printer, explore its parts, virtually identify the fault, and rectify it. Artifacts in such a learning environment could include faulty printers, tools typically used for printer repair, some reference manuals with step-by-step instructions, and may be even videos demonstrating the learners how to do the job well.

2) For training that involves developing skills in a new language or soft skills such as communication, leadership etc. I always find it challenging to create relevant role-plays for soft skills training. Even after great role-play designs, it is always difficult to find volunteers to do those role-plays in the classroom! In Second Life, everyone is immersed into the training and they would have to communicate with others to progress. The role-plays would be the core design and every learner would have to play out something in that environment. Artifacts in such training would include other participants, some places to go visit (a museum, a gallery – anything that stimulates and leads to a conversation), specific learning situations as a part of the design.

3) For training that involves teaching critical (life-threating) skills around working with people – say for example conducting a medical operation! In real-life, it is rather difficult for budding doctors to find ‘practice patients’. Real patient are the guinea pigs for learning. But using Second Life, I can provide them with practice patients who need to be diagnosed correctly, prescribed adequate medication, observed over time, and even operated upon when required. It is much easier to think about teaching such skills in Second Life than in the current one! In Second Life, the budding doctors can make mistakes and learn from them. In real-life, there is no scope for error and any mistake has serious consequences. Artifacts in such an intervention could include sample patients with specific diseases, medical books and periodicals for references, other senior doctors for consultation etc.

As I begin to write about areas where I think I can use Second Life training, I am sure there are many more areas that I do not know about. With this blog, I am on my journey to explore them. However, I also understand that Second Life is yet another media. I don’t think I want to get carried away with it – atleast not yet. In that sense, I won’t create training (design) so that it can be implemented in Second Life. But when I sit down to design my training and I am keen to use a blend, I will now think about Second Life too – along with all other learning tools. There are challenges in using any learning media and this one has its own – bandwidth and connectivity concerns, computing and graphic/media capability concerns, a steep learning curve, and many other distractions in Second Life! But I am sure soon we will find our way around these challenges soon.

I, like everybody else, am keen to see where Second Life takes us – as learners and instructional designers. I am sure the path is unknown and difficult but I would like to give it a shot and know for myself!