Mr R A

Simple design

I’ve recently realised the importance of simplicity in design. I’ve been involved in the web design scene/profession for almost 3 years now, and the importance of design, usability and information architecture is now blindingly important. I’ve seen and been apart of website designs that are far too complicated, far too long, have far too much visual mess (even though it looks cool) to actually communicate properly and let the user do what they came to the site to do. I think us designers over complicate things, overload viewers and try to design for ourselves more than for the viewers of the piece of communication. A website, or any piece of communication that is designed, should have a single main goal or purpose and perhaps some secondary purposes that are related to the first. I’ve just completed 2 websites. One was my own and the other was for a company called Heim - they manufacture school bags, pencils bags, aprons and other school stuff. I tried to make both extremely simple for the viewer to achieve a primary purpose and some secondary purposes.

The main purpose of the Heim site is to enable customers to order products online. Secondary purposes were that of viewing the available products (which may lead to purchases), contacting Heim (which also may lead to purchases) and letting customers order by fax, phone or email. That is all the site is meant to do. Time will tell if it is successful.

The main purpose of my site is to introduce viewers to who I am, what I’ve done, what I’ve achieved, where I spend my time and then to get them to view more of me or my work by giving them links to view or contact details to contact me on.

I’m sick of sites with so many bells and whistles that you don’t know what you’re doing within 2 minutes or less and you can’t find what you want because there just seems to be far too many pages and links, too many ways of doing things and millions of cool, but distracting, features. I’m sick of people who write long articles about something that can be said in a sentences. I’m sick of people and companies trying to look authentic and big and better than other people by writing long articles and blog posts and having websites and other communication that is cluttered and without sole objectives or benefits.

Write less, take more out and have only a few core goals. The aim of this post is to try persuade you that long, lengthy, cluttered, bells and whistles content and design doesn’t mean that it’s better, or more authentic, but normally harder to read, harder to understand, harder for the viewer to achieve what they want to, and it wastes time, in writing and designing and in reading and viewing.

Please make designs and content that get to the point, that benefit the viewer, that communicate purposes or goals simply and that are designed to communicate and not just to look beautiful. Like the art movement of the 20th century making bold stands against the contemporary art of the times by producing art that was different and art that countered what was accepted at that time, I’m proposing that we counter the long-winded, bullshit driven, cluttered mess of today’s website design and other forms of designed communications with simple, minimal and effective designs that have specific goals and purposes behind them and that make comprehension, navigation and action easy for the viewer. Take out everything that is unnecessary and replace it with nothing.

Please excuse my lengthy post.