The Benefits of Simplicity
Bridget Kendall talks to people whose mission it is to make the world a simpler place: designer Per Mollerup, software engineer Pieter Hintjens and art historian Timon Screech.
The world might seem more complex by the day but there are practical steps which can make it less complicated again. Bridget Kendall talks to three people whose mission it is to make the world a simpler place through better design - designer Per Mollerup, software engineer Pieter Hintjens and art historian Timon Screech.
(Photo: Red brush swirl on paper. Credit: Shan Pillay)
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Why good software is like pizza
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Per Mollerup
Per Mollerup is Professor of Communication Design at Melbourne's Swinburne University of Technology. As the head of Designlab in Copenhagen he pioneered the concept of βwayshowingβ at transport hubs including Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm Airports. His latest book is Simplicity: a Matter of Design.
Pieter Hintjens
Pieter Hintjens is a Belgian software developer, author and past president of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure. Pieter's highly praised software is based on simple but often hard-to-implement principles: solve only problems that are worth solving, one at a time.Β As he explains in his Culture and Empire, these principles can be applied to many things beyond IT.
Timon Screech
Timon Screech is professor of the history of art at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He explains how the simplicity in the art, architecture and culture of modern Japan stems from centuries of coping with the unpredictable natural environment of the country, as well as the veneration of empty space in Eastern philosophies.
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