Why does the OK button say OK?
Words are critical to task completion on websites and in applications. Yet they are still chosen carelessly.
“Should the OK button come before or after the Cancel button?” Jakob Nielsen asked in his excellent Alertbox in May 2008. I have two questions here: Why do we need a Cancel button in most situations? Why is the […]
Great websites do, not say
Never tell people what you’re going to do for them on the Web. Just let them do what they came to do as quickly and simply as possible.
“Welcome to our website.” What? I’m in a hurry. I don’t want to pass meaningless pleasantries with your website. I don’t want to shake its hand. Or talk […]
The best websites are useful and ugly
Functionality and usefulness are far more important to the success of your website than how nice and elegant it looks.
The first time I saw the Grand Canyon was a truly memorable experience. The depth, distance and hazy rainbow of colors were like nothing I had ever seen before. The great Colorado River looked shoe-lace-wide down […]
The economics of classification
Everything that is added to a classification subtracts from what is already there, prompting the question: Has more been added than subtracted?
I use a survey service called SurveyMonkey a lot. It’s a great service. Recently, they upgraded, adding lots of new features. The problem is that some of the older features that I regularly use […]
The limits of simplicity
Life is complex, yet in many areas of life, we want simplicity. Perhaps simplicity is an illusion? It is, however, a key challenge of the designer and manager.
Here is an interesting article by Chris Chatham on the limits of simplicity:
Theories with the fewest assumptions are often preferred to those positing more, a heuristic often […]
The Complexity of Simplicity
Some interesting observations on the complexity-simplicity debate by Sam Vaknin for The American Chronicle:
Complexity rises spontaneously in nature through processes such as self-organization. Emergent phenomena are common as are emergent traits, not reducible to basic components, interactions, or properties.
Complexity does not, therefore, imply the existence of a designer or a design. Complexity does not […]
[More] or (Less): Seth Godin
Seth Godin is one the most interesting and most enthusiastic thinkers on marketing. Here he’s written an insightful piece on how we are driven to do more but often need to do less. More has the upper hand because we’ve been doing more for a long time:
More has been around for thousands of years. Kings […]
Why simplicity is essential to web design
A simple website charges you less time. A complex website charges you more time. Time is your most precious resource.
Simplicity is highly overrated, according to Donald Norman, a design thinker I very much admire. “I’m a champion of elegance, simplicity, and ease of use,” Norman writes. “But, as a business person, I also know that […]
The simplicity-complexity trade-off
Customers buy complexity in the same way they buy insurance. It’s a bet against the future. They think they might need all these extra features at some stage in the future. Joshua Porter of User Interface Engineering has a very interesting piece on this trade-off:
People are reluctant to make trade-offs because they can’t predict what […]
Does complexity sell?
Donald Norman is one of the best thinkers on design around. He has written an excellent piece on why simplicity is associated with a product that is less powerful and useful. More features = more sales? It’s often true …
So, of course I am in favor of good design and attractive products. Easy to use […]
