Less is hard!
Why simplicity is the hardest goal to achieve.
I have worked with many clients over the years who request a design solution that is ‘simple’, but it is rare to find one that truly has the stomach to see it through when faced with the reality of what they are wishing for. You see, simplicity is not simple at all, it is hard, in fact it is way beyond hard. Why? Because simplicity is not a fixed process it is an ongoing mindset that requires the type of uncomfortable sacrifices that will take most conventional marketeers and business owners so far out of their comfort zone their accent changes.
So what makes simplicity so hard?
The truth is that most people's idea of simple is something that is easy to use or easy to understand. But when you ask them to give you an example of something that is simple, what they believe to be simple, is in fact, not simple at all. It is actually just familiar. Familiarity is achieved through repetition and recognition of an existing process or repeated use of a product or service. Over time what was once a new experience becomes more familiar and feels easier to undertake. With this in mind, initially complex tasks become easier to perform without the process or design ever really changing. This often leads people to believe that something is simple when it is actually a very complex solution that we have learnt and never thought to challenge.
What makes actual simplicity so difficult is that it is almost counterintuitive for many designers. This is possibly because they see their role as one of developing features to add value. They take a bells and whistles approach with the hope that more features wrapped in a cosmetic veneer will entice more users. When in fact the opposite is actually true, it is proven that simplification increases adoption. Good design is actually as much about knowing what to leave out as it is knowing what to add in. A good designer is brave enough to question the role of every aspect of a project and have the confidence to leave out or at least make invisible any elements that add complexity or are unnecessary.
“Good design is as little design as possible.”
Legendary product designer Dieter Rams who developed 10 principles of good design, states ‘Good design is as little design as possible’. There are many other great designers and architects making similar statements that punctuate the history of design. The most famous is probably by the German/American Architect – Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe. As the last Director of the former world-renowned design school, the Bauhaus in the 1930s, he famously proclaimed that ‘Less is more’.
Simplicity is not about making complex processes and products easier to understand. It is about creating simple processes and intuitive products. The goal is not to mask the complication, it is to remove it completely on every level. It is a commitment to always asking why? Why is this here? Why do we need this? Why can’t we just…? Why do I need to see or know that? Your mission is to completely remove anything that is superfluous to the goal and then when you have done that, remove one more thing.
Renowned American Architect, Systems Theorist and Futurist – Richard Buckminster Fuller also stated that ‘Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable’. Good design takes a similar approach, in the sense that a user should only be exposed to the bare minimum of what is required to successfully achieve their goal. Good design removes any friction by rendering the unnecessary invisible or obsolete.
“Less is more.”
One of the standout leaps in simplicity that I always recall was the launch of Google. In 1998 the web landscape was dominated by multifunctional browsers and search engines like
AoL, Netscape and Yahoo!, with their busy eye-catching designs laden with links and ads. In 1999 this all changed when a simple empty web page containing not much more than a single search field capped with an awful Google logo. I remember my first reaction was to wait for the rest of the page to load before interacting with it, but that was it. It had one purpose: searching the web – fast. This focus on a single task meant that anything that didn’t serve that purpose was unnecessary decoration and didn’t need to be there. At first it felt wrong, but you quickly realised this was a company with focus. One goal at all costs, no distractions, no indulgences, just search. Everyone knows what happened next, and even though Google is clearly a much more diverse organisation today, there is still a golden thread of simplicity running through everything it does. It is clearly a cultural trait born out of decades of dedication to the cause of usability through simplicity.
“Ninety-nine percent of who you are is invisible and untouchable’”
It is also important not to confuse simplicity with minimalism. Simplicity is not about stripping away the visual style, and reducing your brand mark to a generic san-serif typeface. Uniformity can make things harder to differentiate, which leads to complexity. Individuality and unique brand personality builds recognition, which makes simplification easier.
Now this wouldn’t be a blog on simplicity without mentioning the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. His ruthless pursuit of perfection and simplicity had made a massive dent in the universe and inspired millions of businesses and consumers to ‘Think Differently’ about their own approach to design. The simple approach has led Apple products to become the benchmark for design and UX in every sector it enters, and as a result it has become the most valuable company on the planet. Jobs’ insistence on a Steve or ‘Bozo-centred’ approach to testing ensured that its products remained single minded and avoided the dreaded feature creep that is often a result of design by committee. Like Henry Ford before him, Steve preferred to give consumers what they needed rather than ask them what they wanted.
In fact, many of the greatest leaps in technology have been as a result of one passionate individual obsessively chasing a vision unswayed by external opinion. As you would expect though this usually works best when the decision maker is a genius.
To begin embracing simplicity into your processes, simply ask yourself, can I remove one more thing? If the answer is yes. Do it and repeat.
Written by Darren Scott – Founder & Creative Director
For further information, images and interview requests contact Jo Scott on jo@truth-design.co.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Truth Design
Established in 2006, Truth Design is part of the Truth Creative group and is co-owned by Darren and Jo Scott. The group also consists of Truth Digital and Truth PR. Truth provides creative, digital and branding solutions for clients within a diverse range of sectors, including retail, hospitality, luxury, education and charity.
Find out more at www.truth-creative.co.uk or on Twitter @Truth_Creative.