As Simple as Possible

Albert Einstein said, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.”

When it comes to websites, simple is good — to a point.  That point should be where you can still branch out to greater complexity if you want to in the future.

I had a couple of meetings today. In one, my interlocutor told me, when I asked him what he envisioned for the future, that telling me that would go against his principles. He didn’t believe in trying to guess the future, he assured me, largely because its magnificence couldn’t be foretold and shouldn’t be limited.

In the other, we scaled down from a grand and elaborate website plan with a Learning Management System and multimedia to a plain five page website. One of the participants referred to his original plan for the site as “daydreams.”

In either case, the key to eventual success is simply planning ahead for the possibility that the magnificence of the future may be as great as your daydreams or even greater. Let your developer know what you might want to do in the future and make sure the possibility of growth is there.

In the case of the simplified website, we can build it on WordPress so we know that we can add more flourishes in the future. Then it will be as simple as possible — but no simpler.