Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition
by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler
103 KISS
Simple designs work better and are more reliable than complex designs.
The acronym KISS — Keep it Simple, Stupid — was proposed by Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works in the 1950s. Johnson designed aircraft for war, which meant planes had to perform reliably, and they had to be easy to fix in rough, stressful field conditions. One of the most powerful principles he employed to do this was KISS.
KISS asserts that simple systems work better over the long term, benefiting from increased maintainability and reliability. Accordingly, applying KISS means designing systems that use a minimal number of parts with a minimal number of interactions between those parts and doing so with a mind for ease of maintenance. Given ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access