Achieving simplicity

August 9th, 2009

Post contains not only my opinions about the topic, but also features few sentences from great UI designer – Tim Van Damme.

Simplicity. A one, little word that is lately becoming a most important one among user interface designers. Less is more. Simple interfaces are attracting users, that’s undeniable.

What is the problem, is achieving this simplicity. Is cutting amount of features a right, and the only one solution? Isn’t there some golden mean, between app overhelmed with features and just too simple, or does it has to be our choice?

These are all tough questions. Personally, I think simple interfaces are so much more attractive for a potential user, more pleasant to use and they almost always do things they do good. Because, as they say, when something does everything, it actually does nothing.

Both, MSN Search (on the left) and Google (on the right) at 29th February 2000. Seeing the difference?

We got a whole lot of successful ideas, executed with simple interfaces that are getting extreme popularity right now – as always, on the first spot, Twitter, that does so little, but as well as possible. Another example is Google with their search engine – they rocked the market with a simple search field, white background and… that’s it. Back in those times, other search engines were just filled with shit users didn’t need. Even tough they took an example and redesigned interfaces to Google-alike, it was too late.

I could cite those over and over, but I hope you get the point – simplicity gave those services, and million of others, an incredible success.

I decided to ask well-known interface designer about his opinions on this topic – here it is, enjoy!

Tim Van Damme

Tim Van Damme, a 24 year old interface designer from Belgium is making a great job in UI design at his one-man company, Made by Elephant. I thought this would be a great idea to hear few words from someone as experienced as him.

I’m a big fan of software that does little, and excels by doing that as good as possible. This means I love a simple and intuitive interface. Developers of apps should dare saying “no” to their users. People ask for the craziest features, only to use it once or twice. Also: Everything can be made more simple, everything can be tweaked for a better user experience.

I pretty much agree with what he says – users wishes are usually crazy, but fortunately we are the people who know what this is about and it’s our job to say “no” in those cases.

So, what do you think? With what approach should we design interfaces for our web apps? Drop a line in comments!