Dumb Tech Alarm

I read a post on the CrunchGear blog recently about Dumb Tech and it struck a chord with me, so I wanted to respond.

The concept of dumb tech isn’t a negative thing. It is the understanding that instead of power, people want ease-of-use. Instead of the chaotic jumble of Symbian or Windows Mobile we are enamoured by shiny buttons on the iPhone and the Pre. Instead of a 12-megapixel DSLR, most of us are happy with a camera that takes an OK picture as soon as everyone in the frame is smiling. Instead of a state-of-the-art laptop we’re happy with a lumpen mini-book running Linux. Why? Because it gets the job done more than admirably.

What I really take offense to here is the term “Dumb Tech“.

Sure, they tried to stress that it’s not a bad thing, and can in fact be very positive, but in fact it shouldn’t even be called Dumb Tech – it should be called Evolved Tech.

And it’s not about “getting the job done more than admirably”. This is fully missing the point, which is: simple things make our lives better. Period. Simple things make our lives better aesthetically. They help us work more effectively. They lift our spirits and enrich our lives.

As previously mentioned on this blog, being alarmingly simple should be one of the highest measures of success for any kind of design.

For some reason, if you’re a designer and create, let’s say, vases for flowers, everyone seems to agree that an incredibly simple design is a great thing.

How come most people don’t apply these same design standards to websites? And what about alarm clocks?

The truth is, we’re now seeing a turning point in internet design. Sites like this just get it:

1. Twitter
2. Tumblr
3. Going to Rain
4. Down for Everyone or Just for Me

Sites like this just don’t:

1. MSN
2. MySpace
3. Microsoft.com

They’re all cluttered up with junk that makes it hard to figure out how to use them.

If you have a website, and if it works & your users are basically happy…try seeing what you can remove from it to make it even simpler and easier to use, instead of clogging it full crap that people don’t really need anyway.

Now that’s what I’d call Evolved Tech.

Tags: alarm clock blog, alarm clock design, alarm clock rant, alarmingly simple, crunchgear, dumb tech, evolved tech, onlineclock blog, onlineclock rant, simple design

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