Why so minimalistic?
Have you ever come across a user interface that was ridiculously easy-looking, but hard to use because it lacked a lot of important options that were missing, or maybe you couldn’t find them? Also, have you ever come across a complex-looking interface but easy to use because everything you want to reach your goal was findable? There is something about a certain complexity to the apps that are actually good in the long run, too easy apps are not challenging enough for the users.
“People resist reductions to the amount of complexity in their lives. when an application is simplified, users begin attempting more complex tasks” — Bruce Tognazzini
I had a habit of conveying my thoughts and expression in a needlessly short manner, for example, I have a few years old Whatsapp status on my phone that read, “Only you can talk yourself out of why you can’t”. I had to connect the dots in my head to understand what it meant. In case you didn’t understand it I’ll complete it for you — Only you can talk yourself out of why you can’t do something. Interface design is like a conversation that shouldn’t need more explanation than what has already been said, it has to be understood and responded to by the users without making them think much. What looks pretty straight forward to you might not be so straight forward for the users! Minimal design could be simple but simple necessarily doesn't mean minimal. Example?
I know the image on the right looks like an exaggeration of minimalism(not even a real house) but, you get the point, and the difference.
Take Medium for an example, I personally love Medium’s design, it is clutter-free, minimalistic, stripped-down to only what is essential. Still, a few days ago my sister wanted to start writing a blog and she wanted suggestion from me on which platform to choose, and I suggested her to use Medium without a second thought. She completed writing the blog on Medium and shared it with me, I realized that she didn’t make use of any of the many features that Medium has to offer while writing the blog. When I asked her she said, “I couldn’t see any of those features”. If you have used Medium to write you must be aware that Medium does not show any editing option on the screen until unless the text is selected.
Google search page is a great example of simple and minimal design. But that’s not always the case with Google products. I struggle to use a few google products because they are so easy looking that they sometimes end up tricky. Most of the options are hidden, you can’t know what’s under the “kababs” & “hamburgers” until you go see it for yourself. It must be working great for Google, I’ll not deny that. But, we designers tend to get inspired by these products and incorporate them into our design without understanding the target users and their context of use. It is working well for Google, it’ll work for us too!
Context of use — I get a meeting link from a colleague of mine to join a meeting on Google Meet, I opened the link after seeing his message to join the meeting(I was late) and I landed on a screen. Now because I was late, I was looking for a button that said “Join immediately and start talking already” but instead I found this — Ask to join, Present, and two Kababs in the Menu. It took me a while to understand what I’m I supposed to click, is there something I should know before I can join? BTW, what does the present button do?
In the name of minimalism, we designers are hiding a lot of information from the screen that might be important for the user to make a decision. Now choosing a beautifully looking design over understandability is not a tradeoff, it is a trend. It’s not uncommon for Designers to confuse a beautiful looking product with one that works beautifully — Braden Kowitz
“In most cases, an engineer should spend an extra week reducing the complexity of an application versus making millions of users spend an extra minute using the program because of the extra complexity” — Larry Tesler
I feel that designers should spend time thinking about how hidden features and multiple screens make up for the added time required to complete a task for the user. Users are only interested in completing a task or reach a goal, they are not interested to use your product. The interface must be delighting to look at but it shouldn’t be minimalistic art, your design has to do a job it has been built for. I like how Mike puts it — “ Design is a Job”. There are a lot of quotes from Mike Monteiro that I liked while writing this article just that I couldn’t fit it here for brevity.
Conclusion
The design trends are here to come and go, what will always remain inherent to design is users. The design should adapt to the user needs and not the other way round. The next time you choose to incorporate a design trend just ask yourself if the design is findable, accessible, usable for the users, and what is the context of use?
This is my first article on Medium, please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. If you like it then hit them claps!
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