My favorite quote about design is from Antoine de St-Exupery who said “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”

I need every one of my clients to watch this video poking fun at Microsoft’s packaging compared to Apple’s so they really understand what this quote means,  Apparently it was created by Microsoft to point out the flaws in their marketing division’s design process (story) and who knows, maybe they’ll listen.

As a web designer and webmaster I’m constantly asked if we can add “more stuff”, “more graphics to spruce it up”  and “maybe some animation?” when what really works is efficient display of information.  Apple’s designers have understood this for a long time, though to be honest they sometimes err on the too-simple (are multibutton mice standard yet on Macs?)