Lex Parsimoniae

Lex Parsimoniae is Latin for “Law of Parsimony”, which pulled out into its simplest form is the The Law of what can be spared, should.

This is a theory that I have been studying for the past year and through observation believe that this can be applied to all situations that require a more efficient, functional solution. This paradigm has many names, but is best know as Occam’s Razor. His razor suggests that when resources are limited or when speed of function is essential, design / complexity trade-offs should be based on what does the least harm to the probability of success, however that is defined.

Form is Function

There is a school of thought that beauty in design results in good function, but I prefer to subscribe the fact that just concentration on the functionality will by its very nature, create its own aura of design. Sometimes, the focus on functional efficiency inspires a feeling that goes beyond aesthetics and ultimately give us the sense that its form is of a higher echelon.

Barrier To Entry

The brain is an amazing piece of kit. One of its most amazing functions is its ability to optimise when processing data. Each brain has been trained over many years (or maybe it inherently has the ability) to simplify individual objects into groups. Instead of seeing each individual blade of grass, the mind sees a field. Millions of pieces of data grouped into one object because it knows, to comprehend millions of pieces of grass would take and enormous amount of effect. Effect that could be focused elsewhere. So it generalises to make life easier. This sort of information overload can happen in design as well; Too much will distract from your likely objective.

Remember that 7 Second Rule? If your web app or website has 7 seconds to impress then wouldn’t you prefer showing off your functional muscles? How useful your app is? and not long it takes to load the really cool (bandwidth crunching) design? Remember how it easy it is to make your mind up about someone when you them for the first time. Same rules apply.

Just Do It!

What are yoru objectives and goals? Hopefully, when developing a web app or website, to make your (or your users) life easier! And let’s remember, this ‘thing’ we call the Internet is broken. So don’t break any further with dodgy CSS and bloated javascript. Functional Turn Around is the most impressive aspect for me these days. Spend time developing how the app works, refine it, refine it again, then again. Then when it works, design around the edges.

If you like latin phrase then try this one:

“entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem“, or “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity”

or just remember, K.I.S.S – Keep it Simple, Stupid!

The Golden Mean

The golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. It is the very definition of Yin-Yang or the word Harmony.

As Einstein put it:


Einstein is sometimes quoted wrongly with the above, as some people have interrupted it as “keep thing as simple as possible” or what some people call Occam’s Razor. But I disagree. When he says about “but not simpler”, he was actually referring to the Golden Mean.

As Aristotle said about the Spartan way of life; How they trained Men, not women and how they trained for War but not for peace. Aristotle knew that this is not a good way to live. If there were no enemies to fight, what would happen? Such disharmony creates greater difficulties in the future.

What does this mean in design and development?

Ancient Greek structural design is based on symmetry and proportion. Modern research also suggests that people whose facial features are symmetric and proportioned according the golden ratio are looked upon as more attractive than those whose faces are not.

The Golden Number

The Golden Number has been much publicised in the fantastic book, “The Da Vinci Code”. Phi, (1.61803… etc) appears throughout life and the universe. A few believe that Phi is the most efficient outcome, the result of natural forces. Others believe it is a universal constant of design, and the signature of God’s handwork.

Phi is used in Art; masterpieces such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”, The Parthenon, the famous Greek temple built for the goddess Athena, Biology; proportions of the human body and faces and Mathematics; Phi is found within Geometry.

What does this mean in life?

There is a word that is used constantly now days which (apparently) if we can achieve, we will live a happier, longer, more fulfilling life; Balance. Balance is the middle of the average or the Golden Mean. A healthy balanced diet, a balanced working life, being within the average weight for your height. Pleasure / Pain? Obtaining the Golden Mean allows us to enjoy all life’s pleasures without becoming to obsessed with, for example, Chocolate or Rabbit food. Enjoy both!


Life is a balance and if we stay within the realms of this, we will enjoy the most of what the experience of living can bring us. Look towards the Golden Mean (and its applied use) for inspiration when developing an “experience”, be it life, a piece of work or design, or a movie. Explore all the different shades but obtaining the “Mean” provide us / the viewer / the user with the balance that we / they require.

As a side note, when dealing with functional outcomes, we should look at Occum’s razor. Which being us back to another quote:


More information about Occum’s Razor.

Anti Web Builder Misconceptions








From Design, to Code to Content to ongoing Maintenance.











Blog! After 4 years, it's finally here!

Why has the blog taken so long to come to BaseKit. I'll explain...

We've had people screaming out for a BaseKit blog feature for years but there was a strong decision made to not release the blog feature for the V6 (our previous editor). The product team here are always concerned about releasing the best possible product. We released that for blog to work effectively, we needed to have a data driven engine... classic CMS.

Our V6 editor fundamentality was built with design in mind; you could drop widgets anywhere on the page. The problem with a design-centric methodology was that it makes it very hard to define what a piece of content is; where is user's logo on the page if they can drop it anywhere. Semantics was an after thought with V6.

When we started building our V7 editor, we had this in mind. We built the framework from the ground up with semantics and data in mind. Profile data is centralised so data such as a companies logo or address can be changed in one place and updated across the whole site.

We wanted to wait for this data-centric framework to solidify before we moved forward to super data-centric features such as Blog, Ecommerce and Menu.

I've been using this in depth for months and i'm extraordinarily excited about this feature. It's important to me (and us at BaseKit) that we give you, the blogger, a simple content editing experience so you can build awesome blogs. And there is more to come too!

So here it is! Four years in the making! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have!