The aesthetic beauty and simplicity of "archive"
Welcome to compusthetics.com, a celebration of that in the world (in particular the world of technology) which is aesthetically beautiful. Occasionally we’ll discuss grand schemes, breakthroughs, paradigm shifts, and unsurpassed elegance in computing. Other times we’ll break out the microscope and focus on seemingly inconsequential details which nonetheless have a greater impact on our daily lives than we probably ever noticed. Today I’d like to share my thoughts on one of those small details that’s undoubtably familiar to the majority of potential readers, but nonetheless deserves a special mention. That thing is, the archive button.
I’ve been using Gmail full time since January of 2006, and as of this writing I have approximately 8,000 archived in my personal Gmail account which total about 700 MB, or roughly 9% of capacity. While Gmail has many noteworthy features, such as labels (which I greatly prefer to folders but ironically I don’t find myself using since search is generally sufficient), and ever increasing free storage (which has roughly paralleled my own consumption, keeping my usage nearly level around 7-10%), the archive button and integrated search are undoubtably among the most important in my opinion. The tag line is simple: never have to delete again.
It’s so simple, it’s ingenious! If there is one thing I’ve learned in the last few years it’s that many spend more time organizing than they stand to gain from that same activity.
I used to spend precious time filing important little papers in a nice little file cabinet, with nicely labeled little files, where I put my nicely sorted little stacks of paper. Why?! One day better sense got the best of me (thanks to a friend), and it hit me like a freight train.
Here I was, with limited time on this Earth, wasting away my valuable time filing documents that I would more than likely never look at again! Even the handful of documents that I might ever look at again would only be looked at once or twice. Am I a cog, or what?! To make matters worse, file systems make us draw lines, and when we draw lines, things get lost. I don’t care who or how careful you are, or how you draw your lines, not everything fits nicely into a single bucket, and things get lost.
Since my epiphany I’ve adopted a very simple two pile filing system: one pile for things needing action, the other for those that don’t (or already have had action). The former is on my desk, the latter in a box. Everything, and I mean everything goes into the box at some point, and there is a new box for every year. For me, a 3-4” high box does nicely to fit all the paper baggage I generate in a year. If I ever need to find a document, I always know where to look: in the box! My system has been working well for about three years now and I’ve only ever needed to look through the boxes a handful of times (taking maybe 5-10 minutes each time), and I always find what I need because I consistently use them for everything!
This is essentially the Gmail archive and search features. Of course other email clients support this workflow too by creating a folder designated as the archive, but the problem with this approach is the sheer tedium of it! A button is much better: no dragging; just a single, simple, pain free click and you’re worry free. Your email is always there, awaiting your beck and call should you ever need it again. A few moments of though will surely allow one to come up with a way to find any email using the ultra-powerful and ultra-quick integrated search.
In order for this to work, I believe you must never delete! Deleting is the same as drawing a line—what to and what not to delete—and then were back to the same old file system. You’ll find yourself wanting to fudge that line, to delete something that you’re pretty sure you’ll never need, or keep something around that you would normally delete but this one seems more useful somehow. Later you will need to find something, but you just can’t seem to locate it. And you’ll wonder, did I delete it? Don’t let this be you! This life is complicated and you have enough decisions to make every day, why would you force yourself to make another decision when the answer is so obviously in front of you? I still find it ludicrous when I see people deleting emails in Gmail. Life can be simpler.
While everyone else was trying to build the bigger, better, more feature rich email client, Gmail stealthily gave me everything I needed in the simplest possible way. Sure you may find some feature lacking, sure you may prefer to stay stuck in your old folder paradigm, but listen carefully: you are probably working harder than you need to, and constraints make you a better person. Deal with it. Simplicity is one of the, if not the key metric for aesthetics in software design (and many other types of design too). If you seek simplicity, you will not only become a more efficient user, you’ll become a happier one too.
So kudos to the Gmail team for pioneering a system of utter simplicity yet power. I owe you a debt of gratitude for challenging convention and advancing the state of the art.
I’ll be revisiting Gmail, and many other applications like it, in the context of simplicity, personal information management, and more. For many years now I have been walking a path which has focused me to ever great extent on simplicity, beauty, and aesthetics, and which brings me ever closer to an understanding of exactly what these ‘words’ mean. I’m not exactly sure what this blog will be yet, for this extension of my journey is just beginning, but I do hope to share, with any of you willing to listen, the tales of my most important discoveries, as inconsequential as they may be. If you find something interesting, please do continue the conversation! I would like to learn from the world and I feel like this is my outlet to do it.
Thanks for tuning in and see you all again soon!
