How Does Your Team Balance Complexity and Simplicity in Design?

Question

In the intricate dance of product design, how do you find the sweet spot between powerful functionality and elegant simplicity?

We'd love to hear your thoughts on this balance in design. How do you ensure that powerful features remain user-friendly? In your experience, what are the challenges and triumphs of creating a feature that is both powerful in functionality and simple in use? Let's discuss the role of design in crafting such features.

Danny Ruchtie · Accepted Answer

@ixord what is your definition of a simple interface? Do you have any guiding principles? We often must balance how much control we want to give our users. Give too much control, and things can get complex really quickly, too little, and users get frustrated. In our case, we have a lot of non-tech users, and both engineering teams are using the same tool.

Danny Ruchtie · Answer

@entreeden That sounds reasonable, especially if you want to move fast, but I find it quite tricky in a space with a lot of competition; one of the key ways for us to stand out is to focus on the user experience. I guess its really subjective but what is your process of defining the 80% where to draw the line?

Igor Lysenko · Answer

@druchtie 
For a simple interface, I think that there is not much functionality and you won’t get lost in using this very functionality.

Igor Lysenko · Answer

I consider simplicity in design to be solid colors and a simple interface.

Eden · Answer

I always try to honor the 80/20 rule. Do 20% of the work to get 80% of the outcome, it's okay if it's not all perfect or working (especially in the software space!)

How Does Your Team Balance Complexity and Simplicity in Design?

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