Simplicity – What to Kill and What Not To Kill

Mike Rundle of Flyosity brought up a bunch of interesting ideas and thoughts in his blog post Kill The Settings, Build Opinionated Software, but in short he is effectively saying:

“Do what you want, don’t listen to users, keep things simple, and focus on numbers, not on the niche user case.”

The problem with this edict is that it is ‘one size fits all’, and at no point considers the complexity of business processes or the reality that in the growing stages of your business can you afford not to listen to your ‘users’.

A 2-Way Approach

As is always the reality, there is more than one way of doing things.  Distilling your settings down to ‘You can only have A’ is way too rigid.  Nothing stops you, as a developer or designer, setting a default, and providing secondary access, effectively   optimising for the mainstream, whilst not killing overall access to ‘power options’.

To use the same example Rundle references, Apple, they do this in scenarios where they have ‘dumbed’ down a process or preferences.  The network control panel is a good example of this.  Most mainstream users would be completely ‘out to sea’ when handling network settings, so they use defaults and auto network selection to help ride over the complexity, but at the same time they provide an ‘advanced’ button to give ‘power users’ access to additional hidden panels.  Do they have to?  Not really, but they don’t do what Rundle suggests, and that is to ride rough shod over the needs of a power user.

Catering for Users

Above and beyond this, and contrary to Rundle’s post, not all users remain ‘idiots’ forever, more so if you teach or guide them properly.  Even mainstream users will move beyond the ignominy of ‘idiot’ status!  The increased length of time they spend using your product or service, the more they will demand of it and of you.  It is also these individuals that will help you achieve your long term goals, and I don’t mean just in terms of generating a possible revenue.  Such users will provide marketing opportunities, and they will likely also help you find niches that you didn’t even know where there and can eventually exploit.  Keeping them on your right side is good business sense.

And what of more niche user cases?  I suppose this is why the accessibility usecase is ignored almost all the time, because such users are not the target audience and make up such a small percentage of potential revenue.  Plenty of ‘non-commercial’ enterprises, for example cultural institutions, will go beyond simply doing what is best for themselves, and want to take care or legally need to take care of such niches, filling the void where private enterprise does not go more readily.

Don’t Kill Common-Sense – Effective Design

I am not advocating complexity by any stretch of the imagination, and understand that with the right design even the most complex processes can be simplified, but at some point you reach a level of over-simplification that just isn’t justified.  On the flip side of course, complexity is enhanced by poor design.  So UI design shoudl really be your first port of call, before simply axing options.

All in all, you need to do what makes the most sense:

• Use simplicity to increase conversion and provide a more welcoming service to mainstream users, but don’t shut out niche users by not catering to them either.
• Hide complexity with advanced buttons and with wizards taking even the most simplistic users through the most complex tasks.  Insist on quick insert screens that can be followed up with more complex edit screens.
• Use good copy, don’t let developers type jargon into your designs.
• Use the best defaults, and pre-determine options where possible based on locale etc., but don’t stop your users from changing these where necessary.
• Most importantly, follow standards, and use the tricks learned by the big boys.

Life doesn’t need to be taxing, but at the same time, it doesn’t need to be over-simplified if all the constituent parts of development and design are doing their job properly.