Keep It Simplestupid

8/13/2019 Keep It Simplestupid

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overwhelming choice, technologicalcomplexity and diminishing free time,consumers are desperate to simplify theirlives. Increasingly, they would rather buyproducts and services that meet one needsuperbly rather than many needs satisfac-torily. And where complexity is unavoid-able for example, on the internet they

want simpler access.WhenBusinessweekannounced the win-

ners of its 2008 International Design Excel-lence Awards in July, it identied eleganceand simplicity as key trends. Many of the205 award-winners had designs that makecomplex products easier to use and oftencheaper or whose elaborate functions

were made user-friendly.Take, for example, the Flip Ultra dig-

ital video camera (see page 33), one ofthe 35 winners of a gold award. Its part

of a range that has very low specica-tions by modern standards, recording upto an hour of video at a low resolution,

with only four controls for play, record,delete and zoom. Yet, since its launch inSeptember 2007, it has been the best-selling camcorder on Amazon.com.

The success of the Flip Ultra i s due partlyto a backlash against rising technologicalcomplexity. In recent decades, manufac-turers, especially those in consumer elec-tronics, have increased the number offunctions that their products will per-form in the belief that this will deliver

a proportionate level of value. Yet suchfeature-set escalation often leaves theconsumer feeling bafed and dissatised.

In his 2008 bookPredictably Irrational(16.99, HarperCollins), Professor DanielAriely of the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology describes how consumersfaced with too many options focus onnegative outcomes: A friend spent nearlythree months selecting a digital camera,he recalls. When he nally decided, Iasked how many photo opportunitieshe had missed, how much valuabletime he had spent making the selec-tion, and how much he would havepaid to have digital pictures document-ing the last three months. More thanthe price of the camera, he said.

Consumers are often dissatised afterbuying overly complex products. Research

by Professor Roland Rust, head of market-ing at the University of Maryland Busi-ness School, has shown that many sufferfrom feature fatigue. Initially, they may

be attracted by a product with surplusfeatures, but after a while they becomeoverwhelmed by the products complexityand annoyed by features they realise theydont want or need. Their response istypically to return the item, take their

business elsewhere, and complain toother consumers.

Research by Accenture, the global pro-fessional services rm, found that onlyve per cent of returned products actuallyhave a malfunction in many cases, the

buyer has simply found them too complexto set up. Another study by the Universityof Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, foundthat the average US consumer spends only20 minutes trying to make a device work

before giving up and returning it.Increasingly, service providers are also

acting to prevent customers and potential

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THE ACRONYM KISS HAS BEEN POPULAR IN BUSINESS FOR DECADES,BUT ITS MESSAGE HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT

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Nielsen, a technology consultant dubbedthe guru of webpage usability, by The

New York Times, published research thatshowed the average business metricsimprovement after a usability redesign isnow 83 per cent. There is also a growingrecognition among consumers as well astechnologists that elegant interfaces, suchas the Apple iPhones touch-sensitivescreen, can make life considerably easier,as well as being aesthetically desirable.

Were wired for direct manipulationof objects, says Dan Saffer, an interac-tion designer based in San Francisco andthe author of Designing for Interaction(28.99, Peachpit Press). Interactive

gestures return physicality to computa-tional tasks. While they arent necessar-ily less complex, they certainly feel morenatural. The success of products such as

the Apple iPhone and the Nintendo Wiigames console are largely attributable tothe publics embrace of intuitive experi-ences over cognitively demanding alter-natives such as keyboard commands andhierarchical menus.

As consumers have become moreenlightened about the high levels of

usability and functionality that co-exist in an elegant interface, they have

become less tolerant of bad design. They nolonger accept that if a system offers morefeatures than its rivals, it will necessarily bemore difcult to use.

Many organisations are therefore mar-shalling internal teams and consultants toaddress complexity in their product andservice portfolios. They are adapting theirmarketing accordingly witness the slo-

gans Sense and simplicity and That waseasy! adopted by Dutch electronics com-pany Philips and US ofce-supply retailerStaples respectively. And they are paying

just as much attention to clarity the ease

of perceiving and interacting with therange of functions offered by a s ystem asthey are to the functions themselves.

There are a number of ways to achieveclarity, but what they all have in commonis a goal of balancing three characteristicsof the user experience: guidance, comfortand sensation. Guidance is the moststraightforward and refers to a product orsystems ability to clearly articulate how it

works to the user. Guidance may be com-municated implicitly in the design of theinterface elements, or explicitly viainstructions and labels. Comfort refers tothe degree of t between the user and thesystem. This can include the physical orergonomic suitability and the appropriatelevel of cognitive demand. Finally, sensa-tion is the ability of the system to motivatethe user to interact. Ultimately, clarity is

achieved when a user knows how to use aproduct, is able to do so comfortably and i sengaged with it during use.

automatic improvements

Automation can be a very powerfulmechanism for achieving clarity whenit appropriately addresses these threeaspects of the user experience. Automa-tion is not about eliminating complexity,

but effectively allocating it between theuser and the s ystem. For example, the

relative ease of using an automatic trans-mission over a manual transmission isachieved by moving the complexity of the

gear-shifting task from the user to thecar. But from a technical perspective, theautomatic transmission is a more com-plex system than the manual one.

In other words, what the end-userwants isnt simplicityper se, but a simpleway to access complexity.

While effective, automation is limited

to situations where a users specic goals

or preferences are predetermined oreasily measured. In reality, most com-plex systems rely on human expertiseand decision-making to function effec-tively. As a result, people are frequentlyfaced with systems that provide toomuch information or too many choices.Achieving clarity in such contextsrequires principles that are derived fromhuman factors and psychology.

Progressive disclosure is a prime exam-ple of such principles, where the numberof options and level of detail presented aredriven by the users interactions with asystem. Indeed, Barclays played a key partin the popularisation of progressive dis-closure systems by deploying the rstautomated teller machine (ATM) at a UK

branch in 1967. ATM-users still select froma range of frequently accessed functions,

then make secondary and tertiary choicesthat enable them to impose more controlover the task they wish to perform.

Various banks around the world arenow taking steps to enchance the automa-tion and progressive disclosure of theirATMs for example PNC (PittsburghNational Corporation), a US-based bank,enables customers to set up an ATM pro-le. Among other things, this proleenables customers to specify a default lan-

guage and withdrawal amount to be dis-played on the ATM screen, removing theneed to enter preferences each time.

The most direct way to achieve sim-plicity, however, is to cut back on func-tionality. Reduce is the rst principlerecommended by John Maeda, the presi-dent of Rhode Island School of Design,in his seminal 2006 book The Laws ofSimplicity (12.95, MIT Press). When itis possible to reduce a systems function-ality without signicant penalty, true

simplication is realised, he says.

Of course, its critical during this proc-ess to target the right features for excision,

based on an understanding of custom-ers actual needs, rather than perceivedones. Also important is knowing whento take responsibility for certain aspects ofa product or service and knowing whenanother organisation is better positionedto add value in those areas.

At 37signals, a Chicago-based soft-ware developer, both principles are

strongly in evidence. Here, an extremeless is more approach is used to create

web-based business applications thatare very different from the feature-laden products of industry leaders suchas Microsoft and SAP.

less is more

Do less than your competitors to beat

them, 37signals advises in Getting Real,its guide to building successful applica-tions. Solve the simple problems andleave the hairy, difcult, nasty problemsto everyone else. Instead of one-upping,try one-downing. The company lives upto this mantra by aggressively reducingfeatures to a minimum at the start of aproducts development phase, and add-ing features only after a robust basic plat-form has been established. This allowsfor faster, cheaper product launches, with

greater reliability and reduced training.Witness the success of Basecamp, its web-

based project management tool, whichwas launched in 2004 and now has more

than one million users.Whether the focus is on stripped-

down software or streamlined serviceofferings, the underlying principles forachieving simplicity and clarity remain

broadly the same. First, companies must weigh up theshort-term benets of attracting new

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When simplifying, itscritical to target the rightfeatures for excision, based on

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IPHONE:Minimal design and

a user-friendly, human

interface are key

reasons for the Apple

iPhones success

(see page 32)


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1NANO

2008, TATA

Three metres long, it

seats four people (ve at

a squeeze), does 65mph

and is set to revolutionise

the lives of millions living

in India. At ust 130,000

rupees (1,555, 1,974,

US$2,768) on the road,

the Tata Nano is the

worlds cheapest car,

designed to provide

affordable all-weather

transport for Indias

young middle-class

families. Its engine is

small and light, theres

only one windscreen

wiper and the interior is

unashamedly no-frills.

But Tata chairman Ratan

Tata points to the current

alternative: four people

balanced on a scooter

father driving, young

child standing in front,

and wife behind holding

the baby. Competitors

are already scrambling to

produce their own budget

runarounds. The petrol

Nano is due to launch by

the end of 2008 and Tata

promises the diesel version

will not be far behind.

2IPHONEjUNE 2007, APPLE

When Apple launched its

groundbreaking iPhone

in 2007, simplicity stole

the show. The design was

minimal: only one button

beneath a glossy black

screen. And the control

system was refreshingly

human, relying on nger

touches and gestures

rather than the complex

keypads of rival phones.

Apple wasnt the only

company to benet from

the launch: other makers

of smartphones, such

as Canadas Research in

Motion, with its ubiquitous

BlackBerry, also saw sales

rise as the public learned

more about the sector. But

the manufacturers of all

types of handheld gadgets

are now scrambling to

simplify their designs. In

the fourth quarter of 2008,

the BlackBerry accounted

for 41 per cent of the US

smartphone market, while

the iPhone had already

built a 28 per cent share.

Simple success stories

Research shows consumers make better choices when faced with

fewer, clearer options. These case studies highlight how simplicity has

become a must-have feature in both products and services

4FLIP VIDEO MINOjUNE 2008, PURE DIGITAL

The Flip Video Mino

promises to tap into

younger consumers fast-

food appetite for capturing

their lives as they happen,

then sharing them online.

Designed for the YouTube

generation, the Mino is the

successor to Pure Digitals

Flip Ultra, which has

already captured 14 per

cent of the US camcorder

market with more than

one million units sold.

At ust 3oz in weight and

a super-slim 100 x 50 x

16mm in size, the Mino

is 40 per cent smaller

than its sibling, yet it still

packs a powerful punch

for a camera costing

around 120. With ust

four buttons play, record,

delete, zoom its pop-out

USB plug enables the user

to plug in to any modern

computer for immediate

video editing, and then to

upload the results instantly

to MySpace, YouTube or

AOL Video. Real life, real

time (almost).

3EASYjET1995, STELIOS HAjI-IOANNOU

Greek Cypriot Stelios Hai-

Ioannou created his no-frills,

low-fare airline from scratch,

ettisoning high costs such

as in-ight meals to y

hitherto grounded

passengers to short-haul

destinations theyd scarcely

heard of, at prices they never

dreamed possible. Now the

easyjet phenomenon has

given rise to a shift in

spending patterns, identied

by US management

consultants Michael j

Silverstein and Neil Fiske in

Trading Up (9.99, Portfolio).

They highlight the new

luxury socioeconomic trend

in which middle-market

consumers elect to trade

down on one product to

trade up on other, premium

purchases. So, tourists may

choose to save money on

travel and y easyjet, then

trade up on accommodation

and holiday in a ve-star

hotel. The airline has also

been wooing the business

market since the beginning

of the decade and business

travel now accounts for 20

per cent of its passengers.

Solve thesimpleproblems andleave the hairy,difficult onesto everyoneelse. Instead ofone-upping,try one-downing

32 demonstrate attention to customer needs.Pre-launch usability tests need to be con-ducted to identify where customers arelikely to face confusion and designers needto develop responsive solutions, includingcommunicative packaging and customer-service tools. For example, in 2002 the

giant US consumer electronics retailerBest Buy joined forces with a user-friendlytechnical support service, Geek Squad, toaddress the under-served need for in-home product installations. And, in 2007,Geek Squad formed a partnership withThe Carphone Warehouse to offer similarhelp to consumers in the UK.

dont over-simplify

Finally, companies must ensure theydont simplify products and services toomuch. Simplicity is about limitinginformation and choices, says NathanShedroff, chair of the design strategyMBA at the California College of theArts. Most people lack the necessaryorganisational, verbal and visual skillsto make things clear, so cutting outchoices is usually the direction taken.For designers, this mistaken approachoften leads to poorer solutions and offer-ings, not better ones. It is the quality ofdesign, he argues, that has the mostimpact on a product or services success.

Simplicity can be elusive in certaincases and some things can never be madesimple, concedes John Maeda. This is

why its vital to clarify which featurescustomers value most, and which can besafely trimmed away.=

Rob Tannen is director of research at Bress-lergroup, a US product design consultancy.

He specialises in human factors researchand development, optimising the t between

people and technology.

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Keep It Simplestupid