VII. The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem
Introduction
Every component added to a product brings a failure mode, a maintenance obligation, a power requirement and a demand on somebody's attention. A sensor can misread. A screen can go dark. A network can drop. A battery can die. The count of things that can go wrong grows with the count of things present.
Solving a problem with less means asking what the problem actually is. Often the answer is a shape, a material or a placement rather than a system. The result is cheaper to build, cheaper to keep running and easier to understand.
- A door that opens one way needs no sign explaining which way it opens.
- A cup with a wide base does not need to warn about tipping.
- A path worn across a lawn shows where a path belongs.
The Speed Bump
A speed bump slows traffic using geometry. It has no power supply, no sensor, no display, no network connection and no enforcement mechanism. A driver approaching one reduces speed because the vehicle will otherwise be uncomfortable, and the decision happens without a sign being read or a penalty being assessed.
The alternative solutions to the same problem are all larger. A speed camera requires a power feed, a lens, a processing system, a registry lookup, a notice, a payment system and an appeals process. A digital speed display requires power, a radar unit and a maintenance schedule. The bump requires asphalt.
A speed bump does not need to:
- Be powered
- Be calibrated
- Be monitored
- Be understood in advance
The bump is also honest about its limits. It slows traffic at one location and does nothing else. Restraint of this kind makes a design legible, because a thing that does one job can be understood completely.
Just as a speed bump changes driving behavior with a shape in the road, well-designed technology solves the problem with the smallest number of parts that will hold.
Categories
- Pass-Through Technologies
- Principles of Calm Technology
- I. Technology should require the smallest possible amount of attention
- II. Technology should inform and create calm
- III. Technology should make use of the periphery
- IV. Technology should amplify the best of technology and the best of humanity
- V. Technology can communicate, but doesn't need to speak
- VI. Technology should work even when it fails
- VII. The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem
- VIII. Technology should respect social norms
- Papers on Calm Technology
- Podcasts on Calm Technology
- Calm Tech Example Book Development
