Drawar

I would say that simplicity is tricky! :)

I wouldn't exactly agree to that. Simplicity at first seems uphill. But then what is simplicity?

"simple design, great user interface, accessible and usable products" are all made in such a way that human interaction with them comes naturally from the user. When a person looks at the artificial product designed to be used by him the brain needs to process a bit and decide that what's the best way to interact with it. It runs a basic sets of permutations and combinations to find a good way based on past experiences. And usually past experiences involve interaction with daily mundane things.

If it doesn't find one then it probably needs to learn. If the product makes it easier then the user is happy. More interactive elements is just increasing the number of permutations. So simplicity is what makes users happy.

So when a designer wants to achieve simplicity he must try to make it as "natural" as possible. The "constraints and rules" are guidelines provided by researchers to help us without thinking too deep.

But we all have these basic traits and if analyzed even we can understand the flow of our thoughts. For instance our eyes look first at the center of the screen or the brightest source of light. This can be applied in a layout to help the user focus.

As with everything it takes practice. And if practice is considered hard work then yes it is. :) Am myself far from perfection. But I enjoy the process.

Nice thought and nice nick xhtmlcss! Can I validate you? lol...

I think that doing minimal well is a hard thing to do, however minimal designs are not the hardest thing ever. Most importantly is the fact that most minimal design lack any sort of underlying concept. Developing concepts that fit a client's need and successfully convey a message is a much harder task.

Thank you all for yhour comments! :)

@Helen : indeed! very very tricky! :)

Yes I agree with you dreaming_awake, you expanded the idea in a very elegant manner!

@ajzinni, I see what you mean, but anything that is minimal but still lacks something is not "minimal" anyome ;)

@dreaming_awake : yes, you can validate me! check my profile to see what's my main website here ;-)

Yes...simple is best. Can I do it well? No. I leave that to the designers...The key is making it so that nobody really notices it's simple - that's effective.

ty xhtmlcss! :)

@realepicurean: Yes! That's the essence of simplicity. Complexity is more noticeable as it puts logic to work.