UX Final Showdown

Simplicity v Complexity in a Bitter Fight to the Finish

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It is a UX design professional’s job to decide how simple or complex their creation is going to be for the end user. Make it too complex and not only can you put off many users, it will seem intimidating and it could be criticised for a lack of aesthetic beauty; UX designers very often tend to lean towards the simple, cleaner appearance. Yet is that always the best path to take?

Many people love the appearance of complexity; they believe it gives them an air of sophistication. Take, for example, the BMW M5: for performance it has few if any rivals in its class, a luxury sports saloon. It boasts phenomenal acceleration: 0-60 miles per hour quicker than you say “0-60 miles per hour,” yet to achieve the optimal performance you need to change so many settings, pressing buttons and turning knobs and making the correct selections and confirming those selections, that to get from 0-60 takes about 10 minutes; whereas a family saloon in which you get in, turn the key and drive away will get you to 60mph a lot quicker in real time. It’s the old “hare and tortoise” story. The BMW owner wants those complicated controls though because it’s part of the “ultimate driving machine.”

On the other hand, UX designers know that simplicity is something that users crave. How many older people have trouble with the remote controls for their television or DVD player? They want to push the ‘on‘ button and let it get on with its job, while the younger generation see more value in having more control over functions. Quite often it comes down to demographics; it is about knowing your target audience and giving them what they want.

Two examples of doing the same job but from different perspectives are Google and Yahoo. Google is a search engine, its homepage is clean and simple, its main component is the search box; this simplicity can mean more complexity because you are making your own way through to your end goal. Yahoo is a web directory, on its homepage there is a lot more clutter, more options, therefore more complexity; yet Yahoo’s complexity means more simplicity because the options for the user are laid out in front of them and they can choose what route they would like to follow.

These are two examples that demonstrate the difference between what Edward Tufte described as Adjacent in Space and Stacked in Time, two ways to present the visual layer of interface.

Think of Adjacent in Space as being like an aircraft cockpit: everything the pilot needs is laid out in front of them, making their job easier. This to the casual observer is an overwhelming amount of visual information, most of which is meaningless.

Stacked in Time on the other hand is splitting functionality into layers, functions and information are only presented when needed. This can present its own problems if the route to the users goal is overly long or complex, they could lose their way.

The UX designer should find a middle ground; enough information and simple functionality so the user can navigate successfully and complete their tasks quickly and easily, but without too much needless information and complexity immediately causing sensory overload. Designing for one’s audience is key.

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