Kiss on Kiss

byvrince79

140 followers

Updated 4 years ago

As I've immersed myself deeper into the WA training its evident that I've been able to transfer a great number of skills from my previous life; specifically the KISS Principle. I've written a short piece describing the principle using the principle itself.

In 1960, the US Navy created a design principle called KISS – It’s an acronym for “Keep It Simple Stupid” that is about striving for simplicity. In other words, a simpler solution is better than the complex one, even if the solution looks worthless.

Let’s explore this topic in a “KISS” way.

“KISS”

This design principle is based on keeping things simpler or the system works best if you keep it simple – Simplicity is the key goal. It’s not easy to manage the performance of the system if designed over a complex structure, so the KISS principle improves the performance of a system by keeping it simple.

The First Use of the KISS Principle

He was an American aeronautical and system engineer named “Kelly Johnson,” who first used this principle in 1910. He worked as a design engineer in the development of the first fighter plane named Mach-2.

The Benefits of Using KISS Principle

It’s really important to use this principle because when consumers are deciding whether to buy something, then they don’t care how ingenious a product designer was. All they just care about is, either it’s easy to use or not.

For example, does an individual willing to buy a rocket? Even if it’s free! NO – Because neither they know how to operate it nor it solves their routine problem. Likewise, a system worth a million dollars, but solves customer problems, will attract individuals toward it. There are numerous benefits of using the KISS principle in the real world; some benefits are as follows:

• It’s a faster way to solve more problems.
• In the world of software engineering – it’s easier to find bugs in simpler coding rather than complex ones. So, smart engineers always make fewer lines code.
• In this way, you can build larger systems that’s easier to maintain, and you will achieve more than you ever imagined.
• Keeping things simple might takes your precious time at the start for smart thinking, but it really worthwhile in the end. In this way, you can save your maintenance and improvement costs too for the future.

Is it Easy to Use?

Using the KISS principle sounds pretty easy? Right! But sometimes using it’s even harder than the complex structure while designing systems. You have to work hard and smart to get your thinking clean to make it simple because it’s worth in the end. If you design something, which is easy to understand, then it will definitely easy to maintain too.

So, striking a perfect balance between power and simplicity is an ongoing mission, and features need to be assessed continuously.

My First KISS

Here are some tips for using the KISS principle in your systems and planning:

• Use Diagrams & Charts

Visual or graphical representation of clutter or complex data is a common example of the KISS principle. Creating multiple diagrams helps to analyze your theory or analysis in a better way rather than reading complex sentences or numbers.

• Use Universal Icons or Symbols

You can use the universal icon, symbols, or name to represent the complex sentences. The best example of this if the “Hamburger Menu”, which keeps information placed neatly out of the way till the user is ready to access more features.

• Make your Design Universal

In order to make your design less fussy, you should have designed a system on the universal concept. It doesn’t mean to build boring or unsecured systems – actually, you need to think smarter and deeper to bring out the best among complex ones.

Is there room for KISS in your Life?

When creating or designing anything – Whether that’s an app, a graph or an e-mail, take a moment and see if you can simplify any further or not. It’s not as difficult as it seems, you just need to begin analyzing or prescribing things from a customer’s perspective.