Luke Wroblewski has a great piece on The Complexity of Simplicity. He looks at three causes why simplicity is difficult.
- Perceived simplicity can often conflict with actual simplicity of usage.
- Actions that provide real value—and drive revenue—often have formidable learning curves.
- Gradual engagement, the most frequently cited solution for managing complexity, is actually quite difficult to design an build.
A great post. My experience has taught me that simplicity itself is a perception, and it better be perception of the user. A product is simple if it plays to the user’s perception of simplicity. Anything more or less might result in frustration or dissatisfaction. That is the reason I think that a product should be configurable, whether in reality a user has to configure or not. Configuration is a lot easier in the software world as compared to others. One of the examples I think of is a three button mouse. By default it works for a right-handed person, but it can be configured to work for a left-handed person.
Of course sometimes too many options can ruin the experience. And how many those too many options are is subjective. This is the biggest problem – a product can be simple only for a specific user. The other user might not share the same opinion. I have heard about the ‘design is the process of removing options’ paradigm. I do not completely agree with it, rather than removing options I will say it is about making decisions. One thing to be aware of is that these decisions that you make are on the behalf of the users.
If there is a wide range of expertise in the users then it might be better to make it configurable, and give the power to users. The ideal solution is gradual engagement, which can be achieved by providing a default configuration. The user can then slowly get familiar with the product and then customize it as required. However, it is really important to make the choice obvious to the user, but not distracting. The ultimate thing would be if the product can customize itself by the skill, expertise and usage. Adaptive websites can lead the path, but they themselves are in their beta today.
December 11th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
[...] I think simplicity is a perception, a perception of the user that is affected by factors like expertise, skills and mindset. Most of the times the products that we buy are only the means, not the end in themselves. They are used in the process of achieving something. If achieving that something becomes difficult by using the product, it does not seem to be simple. The cause can be lack of expertise itself, but the blame is on the product. A desktop computer is one of the best examples where each individual will have his own idea of how simple it is. [...]
January 4th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
[...] I had said simplicity is a perception to assert that the user requires no, or minimal, learning curve to use a piece of software. It is not about how simple the software is really, it is how simple the software is to the user. Neither is simplicity directly related to the number of functionalities or features as they call it. One more aspect is that I do not like to think in terms of features. I like to think in terms of problem and solution, needs and ROI. This lets me focus on the user. [...]
February 1st, 2007 at 10:05 am
[...] Simplicity at the cost of sacrificing productivity can hurt in longterm. Not to say that software has to be complex to be productive, but it has been more than a couple of times that I have come across arguments that use simplicity to justify all developments and changes. [...]
February 15th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
[...] numbers do not do justice to highligh either the pros or cons of the selected architecture. Like in simplicity, perception is going to factor into complexity. That is one of the reasons, like Booch has [...]
October 29th, 2007 at 11:59 am
[...] is dependent on our perception, which is a function of our knowledge, experience and skills. A tool is simple if it asks what we [...]
January 27th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
[...] product quick to use? Are all quick to use products simple? I do not know, but I am sure that simplicity is a perception, the user’s [...]