“In the end, simplicity for its own sake should not be the goal. Balancing the amount of complexity that we engage with is something that UX people deal with on a daily basis. A good experience should be the result of using UX design to find what is meaningful to that end user and present it in the best way possible.” – Francisco Inchauste
Read more in Francisco’s article “The Dirtiest Word in UX: Complexity.”
“There is a delicate balance between the simplicity of use and the complexity of usefulness. But it is true the product that is clear in its purpose, elegant in its execution and simple in its use will set itself apart from the competition and endear itself to the user. Designing for simplicity is a process of calculated refinement.” – Joshua Brewer
This quote is from Joshua’s 52 Weeks of UX article “Simplicity Isn’t that Simple.”
“Ironically, the thing that will likely make the least improvement in the ease of use of software-based products is new technology. There is little difference technically between a complicated, confusing program and a simple, fun, and powerful product.” – Alan Cooper
This quote is from Alan’s book “The Inmates are Running the Asylum.” This quote was also mentioned in Interaction-Design.org’s quote of the day.
“Something is elegant if it is two things at once: unusually simple and surprisingly powerful.” – Matthew E. May
This quote is from Guy Kawasaki’s interview with Matthew called “In Pursuit of Elegance: 12 Indispensable Tips.”
Thanks to @ellenking for sending me this quote via Twitter!
“Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations.” – Paul Rand
Find more articles, interviews, and videos from Paul Rand here.
“If you want to reach the greatest number of users possible, it’s best to write clearly and simply and design your interfaces to be consistent from page to page. For some people, simple usability advice like this is an absolute accessibility need… And anyway, people of all abilities fail tasks that are confusing. Why should we all suffer an interface that proves itself to be unusable?” – Matt May
Read Matt’s article “Accessibility From the Ground Up” from Digital Web Magazine for his thoughts on creating accessible designs.
Catriona Cornett