Simplifying the solution

When solving something, designing a solution or building an interface. We should start by remembering Occam's razor. This is succinctly stated by Einstein as:

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

But this is a bit elegant, sexy and abstract perhaps. Steve Jobs wrote the following that is a bit more concrete and :

“When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there.” - Steve Jobs

What is really helpful to those in the team that want the little addition to improve the solution.

“Sometimes a design decision is what you don’t put in, as opposed to what you put in.”- John Gruber

I was prompted to write this blog following a chat I had with a colleague and reading Shawn Blanc's posting http://shawnblanc.net/2012/07/mountain-lion-and-the-simplification-of-os-x/