Law of conservation of complexity
Encyclopedia
The law of conservation of complexity states that every application must have an inherent amount of irreducible complexity. Who will have to deal with it—the user, the application developer, or the platform developer? It's a very simple but important concept for Interaction Design
with major consequences. Should a software developer spend extra time on the program to make it simpler for the user or should the user have to deal with increased complexity.
while working for Apple in the mid-1980's realized how users interact with applications was just as important as the application itself.There is a twist to complexity however that Bruce Tognazzini
points out; people strive to maintain the same or more complexity in their lives.This results in a delicate balancing act that Interaction Design
professionals must do. Designing Interactions, a book by Dan Saffer, has an interview with Larry Tesler, wherein the law of conservation of complexity was discussed, and since then it has become quite popular amongst the user experience and the interaction design professionals as a reference point. The reference interview can be found online.
Larry Tesler
makes the argument that if the engineer spends an extra week reducing the complexity over making the millions of users spend an extra minute using the program because of the extra complexity; which is better for your company's success? By that statement alone it means Tesler's Law can be applied to many things outside of programming.
Interaction design
In design, human–computer interaction, and software development, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main...
with major consequences. Should a software developer spend extra time on the program to make it simpler for the user or should the user have to deal with increased complexity.
Background
Larry TeslerLarry Tesler
Larry Tesler is a computer scientist working in the field of human-computer interaction. Tesler has worked at Xerox PARC, Apple Computer, Amazon.com, and Yahoo!...
while working for Apple in the mid-1980's realized how users interact with applications was just as important as the application itself.There is a twist to complexity however that Bruce Tognazzini
Bruce Tognazzini
Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini is a usability consultant in partnership with Donald Norman and Jakob Nielsen in the Nielsen Norman Group, which specializes in human computer interaction. He was with Apple Computer for fourteen years, then with Sun Microsystems for four years, then WebMD for another four...
points out; people strive to maintain the same or more complexity in their lives.This results in a delicate balancing act that Interaction Design
Interaction design
In design, human–computer interaction, and software development, interaction design, often abbreviated IxD, is "the practice of designing interactive digital products, environments, systems, and services." Like many other design fields interaction design also has an interest in form but its main...
professionals must do. Designing Interactions, a book by Dan Saffer, has an interview with Larry Tesler, wherein the law of conservation of complexity was discussed, and since then it has become quite popular amongst the user experience and the interaction design professionals as a reference point. The reference interview can be found online.
Larry Tesler
Larry Tesler
Larry Tesler is a computer scientist working in the field of human-computer interaction. Tesler has worked at Xerox PARC, Apple Computer, Amazon.com, and Yahoo!...
makes the argument that if the engineer spends an extra week reducing the complexity over making the millions of users spend an extra minute using the program because of the extra complexity; which is better for your company's success? By that statement alone it means Tesler's Law can be applied to many things outside of programming.