Understanding KISS Design Principle

KISS design principle stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. It emphasizes simplicity in design and problem-solving, encouraging developers to avoid unnecessary complexity and focus on straightforward solutions. The idea is that systems and processes should be designed in a way that they are easy to understand and maintain.

Let’s imagine you’re building a simple calculator in Java. The goal of the calculator is to add two numbers together.

Complex Approach (Avoiding KISS):

You might think, “Let me make this calculator super fancy!” So, you decide to,

• Add a fancy graphical user interface (GUI) with buttons, colors, and animations.
• Let users input numbers in multiple ways (e.g., voice commands, gestures).
• Implement complex features like multiplication, division, and square roots, even though the task is only to add two numbers.

This approach is complex. It adds a lot of things that aren’t really needed right now. It can make the program harder to write, debug, and understand.

Simple Approach (Applying KISS):

Now, following the KISS principle, you focus on the most basic functionality: adding two numbers. Here’s how it could look:

Why This Is Simple (KISS):

One Task at a Time: The program only focuses on adding two numbers. It doesn’t try to do anything else, like handling subtraction or showing fancy graphics.

Straightforward Code: The code is simple and easy to follow. A kid (or anyone) can look at it and understand that it’s taking two numbers and adding them together.

Easy to Maintain: If you want to change something (like adding more operations later), it’s easy because the program is simple and doesn’t have extra, confusing features.

KISS principle, you’re building something easy to understand, easy to change, and easy to fix. Instead of making the program super complicated, you just focus on the task at hand.