The secrets of simplicity
In our designs, we try to create technology that’s both simple and powerful. We’re trying to find ways to let users complete complex tasks without getting stuck, confused or overwhelmed.
Simple interfaces are more effective
Most of the time, we’re looking to create simple interfaces because our clients want to increase their audience and improve effectiveness. By designing for simplicity, we’re being inclusive and we’re creating websites and technology that out performs its competitors.
Sometimes, we’re designing for simplicity because we have a safety-critical or secure application and we need users to be able to get through tasks without making errors.
Simple not stupid
The trick is to create something that’s simple without dumbing-down. Users lead complex, unpredictable lives and we have to create user experiences that suit a huge variety of people in those unpredictable scenarios.
It’s almost never possible to map out every possible user journey. Say you have three types of user trying to complete four possible tasks on a website with five options and six possible outcomes. That’s three hundred and sixty possible user journeys. It would take weeks to properly map and optimise each user journey – and most of the work we do is far more complex than this.
Instead, we look for rules that we can apply to make sites work simply.
Rules of simplicity
I recently shared some of those rules at a seminar at the Usability Professionals’ Association Conference 2009 in Portland. You can take a look at the slides below (I’ve added some brief notes so they make sense).
About the author
Giles has been making products more usable for over fifteen years. He was President of the UK Usability Professionals’ Association from 2003-2007 and speaks frequently on usability in the UK and overseas. He writes on usability for Revolution magazine and was one of the editors of the PAS 78 accessibility guide from the British Standards Institute. Email Giles, or call +44 (0)117 946 3930
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Giles, This is an awesome presentation! Thanks for sharing it! I’m going to have to spend some time with these insights to incorporate them into my daily work… Thanks again,
Mike
This is great. Thanks for sharing.
Great presentation Giles, gets my vote.
Theo.
Giles
Great presentation. Thank you for sharing this. It provides a number of extremely useful insights for developing digital platforms.
Jason
Thanks for presenting this. Nice summary that simplicity is not the same as making something usable. Wrestling with that now on Google Wave.