The Laws of Simplicity Applied to VR

9. Failure

Some things can never be made simple.

Illustrated by Arthur Petrillo

Achieving simplicity in emerging technologies is a challenge, and reaching for it too early is arguably a mistake.

For every new product that successfully finds market fit there are many others that fail. Dr. Maeda’s book mentions the example of the iPod, a product that won people’s hearts by radically simplifying the listening experience, from buying songs to carrying and playing, and ended up revolutionizing the entire music industry. In a world of complexity, simplicity won. But why pre-iPod mp3 players weren’t able to achieve the same level of simplicity? My personal theory is that there is a certain level of maturity that an emerging technology needs to achieve before it can reach simplicity. Early technology products often feel like experiments, in which companies are trying not only to figure out the technology itself, but to find market fit, tinkering with different product offers to see what sticks. And that lack of clarity and focus makes it harder to keep things simple.

Like many other groundbreaking tech products, the first VR headsets were hacked together in a garage. Oculus was introduced as a Kickstarter project in 2012 before the start-up was acquired by Facebook (now Meta). Oculus Rift, the first consumer headset launched after the acquisition, was still a niche product focused on gamers, requiring a tethered PC computer and a pair of external antennas for tracking. Then came the mobile-based Oculus Go that provided only three degrees of freedom (3DOF), mostly focused on 3D media playing. It wasn’t until the launch of Oculus Quest — the company’s first untethered 6DOF device — that VR started to reach the masses and, with Quest 2, branch beyond entertainment use cases. I think it’s fair to say it took almost 10 years and billions of dollars for this brilliant piece of technology to find its footing.

Reaching for simplicity too early when a product or an entire industry is still “under construction” is a challenge. There are so many unknowns and priorities that investing time to simplify and polish an experience may feel like putting too many eggs in one basket, or worse, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. But while over-investing in simplicity too early can be a mistake, not investing early enough can be a missed opportunity. Oculus Quest, for instance, was a big hit likely because of its simplicity — no cables, no computers, no external antennas, easy to set up, easy to use. Had Facebook not invested in simplifying the product experience early enough, its product would probably not have seen the tremendous growth it has in the last few years. While simplicity alone cannot guarantee that an early product won’t fail, it can be the very reason for it to succeed.

The Laws of Simplicity Applied to VR

Introduction: Inspired by John Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity.

1. Reduce: The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.
2. Organize: Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
3. Time: Savings in time feel like simplicity.
4. Learn: Knowledge makes everything simple.
5. Differences: Simplicity and complexity need each other.
6. Context: What lies on the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.
7. Emotion: More emotions are better than less.
8. Trust: In simplicity we trust.
9. Failure: Some things can never be made simple.
10. The One: Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.