Design Simplicity Vs Power

One of design's age old questions... How much is enough? Where is that balance between simplicity and power that will sell? 

As Albert Einstein once put it, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler". 

An Indian car manufacturer, TATA Motors seems to have found that sweetspot with their car model Nano.

There has been a huge interest eversince TATA announced Nano almost a year back because of its almost unbelivable pricepoint of $2000. There has been all sorts of questions like How could they do it? Or can they actually do it? They might have dispelled all those questions with their upcoming product launch in the Asian market

But how could Tata Strike this balance? 

I would think TATA simply started from the basics by following these three simple steps at the start of the process....

• Do not assume anything
• Understand exactly what the users' goals are (utility, comfort, safety etc) with the product
• Design the structure of the product that exactly matches these needs

Detriot Inc might benefit from taking a leaf out of TATA's book, by doing away with those unnecessary bells and whistles and started making products that fit the users' goals and their pockets.