Today, a good product isn’t enough, a great marketing gimmick isn’t enough, even a large war chest doesn’t lead to success (Look at Vista). What is the secret to a great product ? Looking at the current list of the top and most successful products they are all beautifully designed, they are all elegant.

Take for example Google’s homepage, there is just search nothing more (which is a way different from Yahoo), the page looks clean as opposed to the clutter of Yahoo’s homepage. If one word can sum up Google’s homepage it is elegance. There is nothing more, nothing less, in fact when you are new to Google (or the first time you used it) you may have thought that it hasn’t fully loaded yet (which in fact a lot of people thought). Despite being a multi-billion dollar company (possibly pushing the trillion mark soon) the homepage looks so empty…..that is where Matthew May’s subtitle comes in, it seems that elegance have something missing or is seemingly missing something.

http://www.leanblog.org/2009/05/leanblog-podcast-67-matt-may-in-pursuit.html

Above is a short 9 minute audio interview with Matthew May that is really worth listening too. Matthew May explains the basics of elegance and some examples of elegance.

Ateneo Innovation Center : In Pursuit of Elegance

Here is the Ateneo Innovation Center’s book review on the book of Matthew May entitled In Pursuit of Elegance.

Free to Download, Print and Share.

Let’s create things, products and services that are elegant because elegance is beautiful, useful and sustainable.