“The more that technology is perfected, the more it seems to disappear behind its purpose. At the end of the evolutionary process, the technology has disappeared. Everything is gradually tucked away until what is revealed is an object as natural as a stone polished by the sea.

The perfection of invention borders on the absence of invention. Perhaps perfection is attained not when there is nothing left to be added but when there is nothing that can be taken away.”

From my Dad’s recently completed translation of Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s “Wind, Sand and Stars” — a text written in the 1930’s yet still the most eloquent expression of excellence in design.

When your product works with such intuitive ease and consistency that it's most noticeable when absent; when it seems so inevitably right that alternatives seem willfully awkward. That’s when you can call it a job well done.

See this post on LinkedIn