Secrets of Simplicity?
A colleague recently directed my attention to an excellent presentation by Giles Colborne (cxpartners) that describes why simplicity has become a goal of our culture and defines laws and strategies to help us deliver it to the end user.
However whilst simplicity may have become a goal of our culture, this does not mean it should always be a goal of our solutions… It’s become that way because for so long there has been such bad design for complexity, not because complexity is necessarily a bad thing.
Having recently seen Don Norman talking about this subject at UXLondon I’m with him (and Einstein) on this:
“Why are things so complex? Because the world is complex. Our tools must reflect reality. Complexity can be good, leading to a rich, satisfying life, filled with rich, satisfying experiences.”
“The mark of the great designer is the ability to provide what people need without excessive complexity, without feature bloat. Simplicity should never be the goal. Follow the famous Einstein quote: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Complex things will require complexity. It is the job of the designer to manage that complexity with skill and grace.”
Another one from “The Don”;
“People prefer complex things. If too simple, it’s boring. Experience moves the preferred complexity up. Complexity is a moving target not a fixed target.”
As Giles observes, the desired complexity of an interface is highly dependent on the skill level of the user, and this increases with time. The ideal is to keep the complexity at a level where the user experiences being ‘in the flow’ (or zone, or whatever you want to call it) - it is here a user experiences enjoyment and productivity - they can do everything they need to, but don’t have to work out how.
Still, a good presentation though and well worth a look. However PLEASE bear in mind that this is only one approach to UX, which may or may not be appropriate…
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Martin Smith's blog posts
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