Software systems coupled with digitisation for the digital preservation of heritage have become the norm because of the opportunities for vastly better discovery and dissemination over traditional preservation techniques. However, these systems often are built on the premise that digitisation by itself will lead to preservation and little thought goes into the design of the software systems.
It is proposed that the design of these software systems should be principle-based, where the core of such principles can be extracted from an analysis of successful preservation systems. Systems built on these principles will arguably provide the best platforms for digital preservation of heritage. Among these principles, the notion of simplicity is key. Recent and ongoing work provide many operational examples of how simplicity and related ideas can be incorporated into the design of systems to maintain or increase the level of functionality and, arguably, improve the ability to preserve both content and services in the long term.