KISS is related to a fair number of other famous quotes, phrases and principles. The objective of any process is to deliver the simplest possible outcome. Though both phrases technically introduce an “a” into the acronym – they both deliver the same message as “keep it simple, stupid”. The KISS principle is also offered in two other forms (for those who feel delicate about the inclusion of the word “stupid”): The Lockheed F-35 will have been built to the KISS principle and so should your products if you want them to succeed. Copyright terms and licence: Public Domain. This is as true for mobile applications as it is for fighter planes.Īuthor/Copyright holder: United States Navy. It focuses on the idea that if we can’t understand a product, we can’t use it properly and that the widest possible audience must be able to understand it, if the product is to gain maximum market share. KISS may have been the first usability principle for product design – though it was never formally presented as a usability principle. Today the KISS principle is celebrated in many engineering professions (including software engineering) and is often brought to bear by managers in many professions as well as by trainers and educators.

If their products weren’t simple and easy to understand – they would quickly become obsolete in combat conditions and thus worthless. The theater of war (for which Lockheed’s products were designed) would not allow for more than that. He told the designers at Lockheed that whatever they made had to be something that could be repaired by a man in a field with some basic mechanic’s training and simple tools. Kelly explained the idea to others with a simple story.

There’s really not much more to say here is there? Keep it simple stupid. Copyright terms and licence: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

It is worth noting that Kelly’s version of the phrase had no comma and was written “keep it simple stupid”.Īuthor/Copyright holder: Terretta. The phrase “keep it simple, stupid” is thought to have been coined by the late Kelly Johnson, who was the lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works (a place responsible for the S-71 Blackbird spy plane amongst many other notable achievements). The simpler the explanation and the simpler the product, the more likely it is that the output will be useful to others. They care about being able to take that person’s output and make it useful to their own lives. It was Albert Einstein who said “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.” Though it is often mis-reported as being “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough.” What Einstein was driving at was a particular application of “keep it simple, stupid”.įrom scientific concepts to products the end-user doesn’t care how clever the creator or designer of something is.

Keep it simple quotes