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February 11, 2005
Make It Simple, Stupid
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"
-Leonardo DiVinci
In the book "The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm", the authors discuss one of the greatest industrial design feats in history, the scissors. The purpose of the instrument is evident at first glance, two holes suited perfectly to the human hand which are attached to a pivoted leverage device with razor sharp edges. This is a great example of intuitive design. Upon looking at a pair of scissors for the first time it is evident that fingers go here, squeeze them together and the two sharp blades slide together with a crisp slicing action. Scissor design has evolved. Angles have been adjusted, finger holes have been wrapped in form fitted plastic, the tips have been rounded to prevent accidental loss of eyeballs, etc. But the general design has remained the same forever. Any radical redesigns have failed because, well, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
User Interface Design
Tapping into human intuition is the foundation of user interface (UI) design. UI design differs from most print design in that the user interface is built to provide a means of performing a task. On the web we search, shop, bank, play games, participate in discussion boards, post ads, enter auctions, etc. etc. There could be numerous interactions between the human and the computer to perform any one of these tasks. The primary goal of the UI designer is to provide the human with the most intuitive, simple, efficient means to performing the desired action. The secondary goal is to provide a pleasing visual experience for the viewer. Somewhere mixed in would be the potential to promote a product or enforce a brand.
It Isn't Print
Generally, print design is a means to convey a message. The designer's challenges are to gain the attention of the target audience, and then to clearly present the information meant to be communicated. Gaining the viewers attention is the creative part. The print designer has the luxury of a blank canvas and few conformities. Unlike UI design, simplicity is not necessarily implicit in print.
Early in evolution of the web, it was print designers who were first to take a crack at designing websites. Print design principles were the root of these early interface designs. Visual innovation was key while standards were meant to be avoided or broken*. Designers would dream up countless ways to label a site map anything but "site map". Shopping carts were "buckets". Navigation systems were designed to intrigue the viewer rather than provide a simple means to navigate (remember pages full of clickable mystery icons?). Soon standards emerged. Consistency and simplicity became an important factor in univeral UI design. Now, the design challenge occurs in how to be innovative while conforming to basic levels of human intuition.
Simplicity Is Key
Here are a few good usability info sites:
Jacob Nielsen is one of the most well known usability experts today. I think he is kind of a kook (and his highly accessible website is horribly ugly).
http://www.adaptivepath.com/
Chock full of good essays and links.
Jeffrey Zeldman
Author of "The Daily Report", founder of A List Apart, and all around smart, funny guy.
* Remember "Raygun" Magazine in the mid nineties? Raygun was a gen-x culture magazine. Designer David Carson made quite a splash with his brazen attempt at setting stardard magazine layout and design on its ear. The entire magazine, from cover to cover, was visually stunning. It was a nice peice of art, but its disjointed content, crazy leading, whacked out typefaces and general organization of disorganization made it nearly impossible to read. Other designers loved it. The public cancelled their subscriptions after the first year and it has ceased publication.
Posted by Chuck at February 11, 2005 12:08 AM
Comments
I highly recommend the book, "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. I'm reading it now, and though it's a few years old it's still very applicable and has lots of great information on writing and designing usable sites.
Posted by: Meghan ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.techevangelists.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 11, 2005 08:12 AM
The problem often is that the people designing the site have a very detailed understanding of everything that is possible on the site. Visitors to the site do not. It's sort of like when you take a class and the person teaching the class knows so much about the subject that they can't relate to people who know virtually nothing about it. There are some people who are brilliant at a certain subject yet suck at teaching it because they are so far removed from the newbie's understanding.
To this end I think web developers should always be thinking "What are the three most common reasons people will come to this site" and make these things super evident and super easy. I agree, completely, Chuck, complexity is the enemy.
Posted by: Michael at February 13, 2005 11:29 AM
That's part of what makes persona and scenario-based design so fricking cool in my opinion. Maybe I'll do a post about that soon.
Have you guys read The Design of Everyday Things? I just started it, and it's flipping brilliant. The author's whole point is that if you can't figure out how to use something, it's not your fault - it's the designers. And he goes about analyzing the design and usability of everything from doors to light switches to teapots. It's super cool - and really salient to web design.
Posted by: Meghan at February 15, 2005 07:54 PM