Design Principles - Occams Razor

William Ockham’s Razor is as follows, ‘Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem’. For those whose Latin is a bit rusty, it roughly translates to, ‘More things should not be used than are necessary’. It asserts that simplicity is preferred to complexity.

Since its invention, it has been used across several fields, most prolifically in science, mathematics, medicine, and philosophy. However, it has been evolved and adapted over time.  

Aristotle is recorded saying “Nature operates in the shortest way possible” and “we may assume the superiority of the demonstration which derives from fewer postulate or hypotheses.” Early versions of what was to become Ockham’s razor. Later, it was Bertrand Russel who said “Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities.”

Essentially, we are stating that simpler explanations are generally better than complex ones and that the more believable and basic the hypotheses, the more likely it is to be true.

Onto the example! Ok here are my favourite two:

A man is driving home through his residential neighbourhood when suddenly, a ball rolls out in front of his car. Two possible explanations are A) Some children were playing with a ball and it accidentally rolled onto the road, or B) Someone deliberately threw it in front of his car in order to cause a serious accident and him harm.

The most likely answer using Ockham’s Razor, is that A is the answer. Why?

Because, for it to be B we have to assume a great deal. For example, we have to assume that someone intends to harm him, and that they wanted to cause an accident. When presented with competing hypotheses to solve a problem, one should select the solution with the fewest assumptions.

In the middle of a winters evening, a tree falls down in someone’s garden, A) the wind blew it over, or B) it was struck by lightning.

Once again, A is more likely, because B raises too many unreliable, questionable and complex assumptions when A offers a far more likely, believable, and simple answer.

So, how can we apply this in Design?

Complicated problem solving is common in the design world. It’s easy to look at a project and complicate it by focusing on extraneous detail than, instead, to look at the problem as a whole. Apple is a perfect example - a self-contained device, easy to use, intuitive with a very clear purpose and function. While everyone else was focusing on specific problems, it was Apple that decided the project needed to be looked at as a whole, and it was far simpler, thus yielding the better results.

Another good example is almost every branch of Google.

1.          The search engine is beautifully simplistic. White background, minimal buttons, no advertising to slow anything down, efficient processes with a very clear and functional purpose and result.

2.          Gmail, clean, easy to use, uses the same iconography as the search engine, categorises your emails.

3.          Maps is extremely functional, its quick, paired back and efficient.

4.          YouTube uses the same white background, shows you exactly what you’re watching, is accessible and easy to use.

Unnecessary detail can ruin projects, it affects aesthetics, performance and efficiency. All design is problem solving. By choosing the more accurate and simple route, you make the job clearer, opening up possibilities to tackle and provide better solutions to the problem.

Ockham’s Razor can be used in complex situations. Some problems require complex solutions, this is unavoidable, but when you use complexity when necessary, efficiently and carefully, then you avoid the parts of the solution that are unnecessary and that detract from your solution. For example, if you had created two functionally identical products, if you chose the one with aesthetically fewer deficiencies, then paired back its issues to create a more attractive product without compromising efficiency, then you have applied Ockham’s Razor.

Essentially, what we are aiming for is an overhaul of our process. It’s a fairly commonplace practice that when you have spent so long designing something and you realise it’s bad, ineffective or overcomplicating we finish the design. It is something I am guilty of, but if you keenly apply the Razor method then you will become far more effective. It is a continuous editing process, pairing back layer after layer of the project, quickly analysing issues within your work before they become too large a problem.

At the planning stage of any project, it can be prudent to find the simplest solution and, if need be, reverse the process by delicately entering more complex solutions where they are needed.

To summarise, “A design isn’t finished when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” It is an extremely complicated thing to dedicate yourself to the purist form of simplicity, but if you pay attention you start to notice it in the work of the best designers, regardless of industry. The world is full of extremely complex designs, there is something exceedingly refreshing about simplicity. It can be elegant, sophisticated and understated. It may seem to many readers, that simplicity is easier than complexity, but it is not the case. It takes courage to take away, rather than add, and it is far too easy to be tempted to do the latter.

References and Links:

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/occam-s-razor-the-simplest-solution-is-always-the-best

https://speckyboy.com/taking-the-occam-razor-approach-to-design/

https://medium.com/@jonyablonski/designing-with-occams-razor-3692df2f3c7f

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor