From:
http://designinafrica.wordpress.com/2008/10/23/innovation-in-africa...3) Do the hard work needed to find a simple solution. As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” — and it is the key to this type of design work.
It is often difficult to find a simpler solution, when we in the western world have become so accustomed to just throwing money, technology, or manufactured goods at a problem. In most parts of the world, all that is available to throw at a problem is labor. Lots of it. If you can find a way, with minimal additional materiel, to solve a problem, then you are on the right path. Now, find a way to make it even simpler!
This will not be easy. It will take hard work. Look at what you are trying to accomplish, and now try to remove things from it, until you are left with the bare essentials. Now comes the really hard work! Remove more! Make it even more simple.
For me, this has been a driving design constraint, and any reminders of this make me reexamine all projects for what complexities I can remove.
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