Throughout, products have had a concept, which is simplicity, that is, subtraction. So, how should we understand this concept? Below, I will share my personal understanding and the viewpoints given by my mentor, hoping to hear more different perspectives and mutually verify them.
1. My understanding#
Throughout, products have had a concept, which is simplicity, that is, subtraction. In this regard, my personal understanding is as follows: consider a product as a system, with few functions at the beginning and more functions later, which can be seen as the evolution process from a simple system to a complex system.
In this way, if we understand it like this, with the maturity of the product, this process is gradually increasing in entropy, that is, it gradually changes from a simple ordered mode to a chaotic mode. This chaotic operating mode has a lot of uncertainty. In order to maintain the stability of the product system, we need to do subtraction.
This seems to explain the reason for product subtraction. However, there is still a question: How do you know that the functional addition you did before was correct? Perhaps there is another explanation that, with the continuous verification by time and users, some functions in the entropy-increasing process of the previous system were wrong, so we need to do subtraction to remove them.
So, there is another question I want to ask: How do you ensure that after subtraction, the system (product) will be a stable and perfect system?
For this question, I haven't thought it through clearly for now. According to my current understanding from working in product development, this underlying thinking of product subtraction may not only be about simplicity, but also about balance.
That is, blindly doing subtraction is not advisable. Adding and removing functions are both about verifying market and user preferences. Between these additions and subtractions, we need to maintain restraint in adding functions when necessary, and also maintain restraint in removing functions when necessary. By achieving a balance between addition and subtraction, perhaps it is the rule for the stable operation of the product system. The existence of "higher-order infinitesimal" between two systems may be what the product often refers to as "white space," and it is also the key to balance and unity.
2. Mentor's viewpoint#
The above viewpoints were proposed by me in my daily report. In response to this, my mentor also gave his viewpoint:
Yes, subtraction is a state, a pursuit of simplicity. Here, it is more about how to abstract a complex system and simplify it. The simplified way of abstraction can also help users achieve the effects that a complex system can achieve. This is the ability that products continuously exercise.
Let's take a simple example. In the early days, Google Maps had separate input boxes for "departure" and "destination" in map search. But later, through user behavior analysis and A/B testing, it was found that only one input box is needed because users directly input their destination. The departure location can be determined based on the user's current location. If the user wants to depart from a location other than the current one, they will directly search from XXX to XXX. This reduces user clicks and reduces the need to think about input boxes. This is a good way of subtraction.
Regarding subtraction, it is actually a way to break the binary opposition. If subtraction is simply seen as cutting off functions, that is relatively basic. This is about continuously comparing and testing, removing functions that do not meet the super positioning and user needs. Real subtraction or even division is about rearranging and combining user needs to derive new things, which may be a new form, just like touch screens replacing phone keyboards.