Larry Tesler (1985)
SmugMug / interactions article reproduced from Tesler papers.
URL: https://www.tesler.us/articles/conservation
Abstract. Tesler's observation, from inside Apple, that every application has an inherent amount of complexity which can only be shifted around — from user to developer, from one step of the workflow to another — not reduced beyond a floor. The principled basis for "if you make it easier for the user, the engineering must absorb the work."
Tags: design-principles complexity attention