One of the oldest canards in the interface business is the one that says “Maximizing functionality and maintaining simplicity work against each other in the interface” (Microsoft 1995, p.8). What is true is that adding ad hoc features works against simplicity. But that’s just bad design. It is often, but not always, possible to increase functionality without increasing difficulty at a greater rate. Often, added functionality can be had without any added interface complexity; note the difference between interface complexity and task complexity. If the added functionality unifies what had previously been disparate features, the interface can get simpler.
— Jeff Raskin, The Humane Interface
Examples of this are the exception, not the rule. Usually, more features means more complexity.
The best example I can think of is Coda, an award-winning web development IDE.
text editor + file transfer + svn + css + terminal + books + more = whoah.
The story of Coda.
So, we code web sites by hand. And one day, it hit us: our web workflow was wonky. We’d have our text editor open, with Transmit open to save files to the server. We’d be previewing in Safari, adjusting SQL in a Terminal, using a CSS editor and reading references on the web. “This could be easier,” we declared. “And much cooler.”
(To really get a sense of Coda you should check out the website, or try it for free).
Even though Coda’s interface is more complicated because it does more then just edit code, it simplifies the task of web-design, by unifying tasks that used to be done in different applications with different interfaces.
What other examples of things becoming simpler through added functionality can you think of? Please share in the comments below.