When something isn’t working on a UI – a call to action isn’t prominent enough, or the meaning of a link isn’t clear enough, or customers just aren’t noticing that all-important feature on the page – the urge that 99% of people get is to ADD something to make it work. Put a box around the content, add an icon to the link, add more words to clarify the meaning, put it in bold, make it red, and so on. I’m here to tell you that most of the time this is not solving the problem, it’s just adding increasing it. It’s like putting paint upon wallpaper when you should have stripped the wallpaper first, or dumping another item in your garage which is already filled with junk so one more thing doesn’t appear to matter.
I understand where the urge to add clutter comes from – it’s easier to add than to take away or revisit something you heretofore believed to be a good solution. It’s a mental leap to accept that the UI is fundamentally not working and needs a fresh approach, and that yes this will take some time and effort. The bottom line, however, is about how good your user experience will ultimately be – do you want to take the easy route and have a cluttered, band-aid covered, junked-up UI, or do you want an elegant, best-in-class UI? More importantly: what do your customers choose out of these two choices?
Filed under: creative delivery, folly , call to action, clutter, copy, design, smarts, ui, urges, user experience, writing
