Law_of_conservation_of_complexity
Law of conservation of complexity
Adage in human-computer interaction
The law of conservation of complexity, also known as Tesler's Law,[1][2][3] or Waterbed Theory,[4] is an adage in human–computer interaction stating that every application has an inherent amount of complexity that cannot be removed or hidden. Instead, it must be dealt with, either in product development or in user interaction.
This poses the question of who should be exposed to the complexity. For example, should a software developer add complexity to the software code to make the interaction simpler for the user or should the user deal with a complex interface so that the software code can be simple?[5]