A Lesson Learned from an Automatic Door and an IKEA Dresser

The Automatic Door

There are times when you pass a storefront and an automatic door opens because you walked by it. You didn’t want to walk into the store; you were just passing by. But the door still opened. As engineers, we call this a false positive. There are also false negatives. In this example, this would happen if you wanted to walk into the store and the door didn’t open.

As software developers, clients come to us to design and implement systems. Clients prefer perfect solutions with 100% accuracy. Imagine that a store owner came to you and asked for the perfect automatic door. It must open only when a person wants to walk into the store and keep closed in any other case. Even if a dog wanted to walk in, it should stay closed.

You may start thinking of cameras, computer vision, artificial intelligence… but do these solutions make sense? They will be super expensive and it’s just an automatic door.

I think we all agree that a basic automatic door does its job very well, even if sometimes there are false positives or false negatives. We choose to stick with a solution that is not 100% accurate but it does its job. It’s simpler, cheaper, and easier to maintain.

We should think the same way when we are designing software. We need to figure out the trade-offs of the system, talk with the client, and decide how to achieve success with less effort.

The IKEA Dresser

When I saw this dresser for the first time, I quickly thought: How genius, a dresser without handles! This dresser serves the same function as a regular dresser but with less wood and less pieces (no handles, no screws!). You need less tools to assemble it, you have fewer chances to assemble it incorrectly or break the wood while assembling it, and your clothes receive fresh air even if the drawer is closed for a long time.

To me this is a perfect example on how to do more with less.

IKEA has another great example.

When you read the instructions, there’s actually nothing to read. You only see pictures. Anyone in the world speaking any language can understand the instructions. IKEA doesn’t need to translate them, print different versions of them, or worry about where those instructions are available. Mind-blowing.

Conclusion

When designing software (or anything!) think first: How can I do more with less?