Keep it simple and stupid software#

If their products weren’t simple and easy to understand – they would quickly become obsolete in combat conditions and thus worthless. The theater of war (for which Lockheed’s products were designed) would not allow for more than that. He told the designers at Lockheed that whatever they made had to be something that could be repaired by a man in a field with some basic mechanic’s training and simple tools. Kelly explained the idea to others with a simple story. There’s really not much more to say here is there? Keep it simple stupid. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

It is worth noting that Kelly’s version of the phrase had no comma and was written “keep it simple stupid”.Īuthor/Copyright holder: Terretta. The phrase “keep it simple, stupid” is thought to have been coined by the late Kelly Johnson, who was the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (a place responsible for the S-71 Blackbird spy plane amongst many other notable achievements). The simpler the explanation and the simpler the product, the more likely it is that the output will be useful to others. They care about being able to take that person’s output and make it useful to their own lives. It was Albert Einstein who said “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.” Though it is often mis-reported as being “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough.” What Einstein was driving at was a particular application of “keep it simple, stupid”.įrom scientific concepts to products the end-user doesn’t care how clever the creator or designer of something is. As such, the KISS principle speaks to flowing with the intuition of any new user, easing in nuances with care. Examples are “Keep it short and simple” and “Keep it simple and straightforward.” Though both phrases technically introduce an “A” into the acronym, they both deliver the same message as “Keep it simple, stupid.” The objective of any process is to deliver the simplest possible outcome. The KISS principle also exists in other variations with the same meaning. In the case of designing for mobile devices-where the users’ context finds them operating their phones with their fingers, often with one hand-this philosophy is even more vital to follow. In the world of user experience design and related disciplines, the KISS principle borrows from such a scenario in that users who tend to lead busy lives will quickly abandon a complex design. If their products weren’t simple and easy to understand, they would not only cost lives but also quickly become obsolete in combat conditions and thus worthless.

Johnson told the designers at Lockheed that their designs should be simple enough to be repaired by a man in a combat situation with only some basic mechanic’s training and simple tools. The term was first used in the US Navy and is thought to have been coined by Kelly Johnson, who was the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works.

Keep it simple and stupid software#

KISS is used in a variety of disciplines, such as interface design, product design, and software development. Wherever possible, complexity should be avoided in a system-as simplicity guarantees the greatest levels of user acceptance and interaction.

Keep it simple, stupid (KISS) is a design principle which states that designs and/or systems should be as simple as possible.