Comments on: Think Simple http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/28/think-simple/ David Lee King is the Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He has spoken in the U.S. and Canada about emerging trends, website usability and management, digital experience planning, and managing techie staff, and has been published in many library-related journals. David writes the Internet Spotlight column in Public Libraries Magazine with Michael Porter. David maintains a blog at http://www.davidleeking.com Sat, 20 Mar 2010 01:50:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: David Lee King http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/28/think-simple/comment-page-1/#comment-23625 David Lee King Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:56:02 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/?p=1263#comment-23625 Roy - good job of pulling something out that I WAS thinking about, but didn't say too clearly!<br><br>But yes - that's the other side of the coin. I was thinking about making sure the interface is simple on the customer's side ... and to get there, sometimes it might have to be more complex on the back side of the software or service. Or, on the web at least, sometimes a bit of good CSS and simple design principles can clean up and simplify, as well. Roy – good job of pulling something out that I WAS thinking about, but didn't say too clearly!

But yes – that's the other side of the coin. I was thinking about making sure the interface is simple on the customer's side … and to get there, sometimes it might have to be more complex on the back side of the software or service. Or, on the web at least, sometimes a bit of good CSS and simple design principles can clean up and simplify, as well.

]]> By: David Lee King http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/28/think-simple/comment-page-1/#comment-22464 David Lee King Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:01:17 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/?p=1263#comment-22464 Roy - good job of pulling something out that I WAS thinking about, but didn't say too clearly! But yes - that's the other side of the coin. I was thinking about making sure the interface is simple on the customer's side ... and to get there, sometimes it might have to be more complex on the back side of the software or service. Or, on the web at least, sometimes a bit of good CSS and simple design principles can clean up and simplify, as well. Roy – good job of pulling something out that I WAS thinking about, but didn’t say too clearly!

But yes – that’s the other side of the coin. I was thinking about making sure the interface is simple on the customer’s side … and to get there, sometimes it might have to be more complex on the back side of the software or service. Or, on the web at least, sometimes a bit of good CSS and simple design principles can clean up and simplify, as well.

]]> By: Roy Tennant http://www.davidleeking.com/2009/08/28/think-simple/comment-page-1/#comment-22455 Roy Tennant Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:21:18 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/?p=1263#comment-22455 David, I've long been a fan of simplicity, but something I thought you were leading up to was that in order to be simple on the front end you often need to be complex on the back end. That is, for many years library catalogs were simply on the back end (index all 245s in the 245 index) and were complex on the front end (make users select "title" to search titles). Then Google came along and demonstrated how if you were complex on the back end (use a complex ranking algorithm) you could be simple on the front end (type in whatever occurs to you into one search box). This was not "dumbing down" as some librarians claimed, but "smartening up" -- just on the back end, not the front. But I totally agree with what you have to say -- our systems need to be intuitive to our clientele -- probably a goal that can never be fully achieved, but one well worth striving toward! David, I’ve long been a fan of simplicity, but something I thought you were leading up to was that in order to be simple on the front end you often need to be complex on the back end. That is, for many years library catalogs were simply on the back end (index all 245s in the 245 index) and were complex on the front end (make users select “title” to search titles). Then Google came along and demonstrated how if you were complex on the back end (use a complex ranking algorithm) you could be simple on the front end (type in whatever occurs to you into one search box). This was not “dumbing down” as some librarians claimed, but “smartening up” — just on the back end, not the front. But I totally agree with what you have to say — our systems need to be intuitive to our clientele — probably a goal that can never be fully achieved, but one well worth striving toward!

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