As an avid cyclist, I, along with many of my weight weenie friends, can tell you that I do just about anything to shed a few grams from my bike. That’s right, a few grams. I replace the tiny bolts that hold my water bottle cage with special light titanium bolts. I buy a seat that is as hard as a rock and makes my junk go numb on any ride over 20 miles because it only weighs 130grams. I purchase a seatpost clamp for $80 because it was 10grams lighter than my original seatpost clamp. Yeah, that is $80 for that tiny piece of now carbon material that tightens the seatpost to the frame. For me, and millions of other cyclists out there, upgrading my bike is an addiction.

LESS IS MORE

The unique thing about upgrading a bicycle is the better your bike gets and the more effort you put into it, the less you have. Let me explain. There are not many industries who’s goal is to shed the product. Most products advance and give you more. More features, more buttons, bigger screens. But as any cyclist will tell you, bigger is not always better. Millions of dollars go into research and development to make bicycles lighter, faster, stronger and more comfortable. Bicycle manufacturers are using space age technology to make their bike capable of winning the next Tour De France. Companies are constantly pushing each other to use less materials or to find new materials that are lighter and more efficient. Bikes now are not just made of steel or aluminum. Titanium and carbon fiber are now considered “normal” materials used to create bikes frames that can weigh in under 3 lbs. That is about the same weight as a small laptop computer.

JOCKS, WEB GEEKS, & DESIGNERS AREN’T SO DIFFERENT AFTER ALL:

OK, here is where I attempt to make the comparison of the advancements in bicycle technology to the advancements of the Internet, Web Standards, and Design world. A stretch? Maybe, but at least hear me out.

WEB GEEKS VS JOCKS:

Like the bicycle, as the Internet and Web Standards evolve you get less. In most cases the goal of a web developer is to create the cleanest and leanest code possible for a specific site. The Internet was originally invented to share information. It evolved very quickly and without any standards. This made many websites big, slow and bulky, very similar to a road bike in the mid 80’s. Web Standards have since been developed to help the code of a website be smaller and the website performance faster and more efficient. Web Standards use Cascading Style Sheets to make a site easy to read and edit and fast to load. Web Standards are just like those addicting upgrades to my bicycle. But the good news is that once you have your site built with Web Standards you have a solid foundation. You already have the carbon fiber frame. Any other addicting upgrades are just gravy.

DESIGNERS VS JOCKS:

Now on to Designers vs. Jocks. The design philosophy behind the advancement of cycling products is very similar to good usability design. Let me explain: When designing a user interface for either a web application or a website, it is the job of the designer to minimize the amount of effort and input put forth by the user to effectively operate and understand the system. The same design philosophy rings true for cycling components which reduce the amount of momentum on the part of the cyclist to push the bike forward. The key to the overall equation to reduce everything to the bare minimum, getting rid of unnecessary bells and whistles. When this minimalist design approach is achieved, both types of designs (web and bike) are able to perform at their most important function whether it be to out-ride a competitor, present product information clearly on a website, or make it easier for a user to operate an application.

At {e} we are big fans of John Maeda from The Media Lab at MIT. His book “The Laws of Simplicity” puts it best in the first law by stating that “The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.” The book goes on to explain:

“The easiest way to simplify a system is to remove functionality. Today’s DVD, for instance, has too many buttons if all you want to do is play a movie. A solution could be to remove the buttons for Rewind, Forward, Eject, and so forth until only one button remains: Play.

But what if you want to replay a favorite scene? Or pause the movie while you take that all-important bathroom break? The fundamental question is, where’s the balance between simplicity and complexity?

HOW SIMPLE CAN YOU MAKE IT? vs. HOW COMPLEX DOES IT HAVE TO BE?

On the one hand, you want a product or service to be easy to use; on the other hand you want it to do everything that a person might want it to do.

The process of reaching an ideal state of simplicity can be truly complex, so allow me to simplify it for you. The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction. When in doubt, just remove. But be careful of what you remove.”

So please just remember, to just Keep It Simple Silly.