At the beginning of the book, the author writes seven design lessons which should be followed in pursuit of elegance such as stop doing strategy,simplicity,minimum effort,subtraction,break.These concepts may lead many people to think that elegence is something that can be achieved easily.But, when you read the following chapters, it can obviously be seen that elegance isn't so easy even it is something complicated as the concepts given at the beginning have very deep meanings and also requires harmony of four elements of elegance i.e.symmetry,seduction,subtraction and sustainability which often conflict each other.For example, seduction isn't only a matter of missing piece,but knowing which part to make missing.If you think that,subtraction is just a cut of expenses,you are wrong. It requires an ingenious rearrangement of cost items so that your clients will like it and benefit from it.
As the author says ,elegance requires complexity as ligthness requires darrkness,trust requires uncertanity.Without complexity,we can't talk about elegance.
Simple, but not as it is known commonly! That is why, it is very interesting,powerful and difficult to reach it!
Sometimes with elegance, we transform complexity to simple and I think for that reason elegance makes it more understandable and effective.
YanıtlaSilI agree with you it is difficult to reach this because the important thing is to decide which parts should be elegance.
Hi Turan,
YanıtlaSilIn addition to your review I would like to mention that elegance is defined as "cleverly apt and simple" and is achieved through symmetry, seduction, subtraction, and sustainability. I also liked the big idea of the book and enjoyed the many examples, but did not always see the connection between the two.
To sum up: "The power of elegance is achieved when the maximum impact is exacted with the minimum input."
Anri