Do Simple
Limit your design is a simple statement to tell a designer, but so is “do simple”. However, take a second to think about it, how simple is doing simple when it comes to design? Not simple at all.
We see the Apple iPod and applaud its design while wondering why we didn’t design it ourselves. Do you really think you could have designed it though? I mean really? i think about designing an mp3 player and what I would want on it and it doesn’t look like the iPod.
If you are designing Google how do you not go crazy and add a couple more tabs to showcase all the other cool services that you have to offer? Doing simple means saying no when you want to say yes we want more.
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away
Antoine de Saint-Exup’ery
Now let us keep in mind that we are separating design and aesthetics so as not to come away with the belief that the best design is one with a white background and black text. When Muxtape first launched it went beyond simple so much to the point that it was difficult to understand. Sure people were lauding its simplicity, but if you actually used it you couldn’t tell when the song was over or if it was supposed to even be playing.
Simple helps you get the job done through the least path of resistance. I can think of a million things to add to del.icio.us, isn’t its appeal the fact that you get a link and all you do is clickthrough? Nothing cluttering or getting in the way of the purpose of the site which is to expose people to new content.
We went for the same philosophy for the new 9rules, but as you can see we added some aesthetics behind it. Simple is beautiful in the way that you can get from A to B without having to loop through C, D and F. Simple can also be aesthetically beautiful if done right. Combine these two types of beauty and you will find you have a site that is loved by everyone.
From an IA standpoint if you are looking for a method to simplify your site I suggest you take a look at this entry by 37signals that discusses paths and hierarchies.
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