Leon Paternoster

Simple is difficult, right?

How simple are simple designs really? This article looks at the nature of simplicity in web designs and suggests some reasons for why complication rules. Warning: graphic designers not welcome!

July 5th, 2008. Written by Leon. Read the commentary.

Many commentators extoll the virtues of simplicity.  It’s a truism that simple design is better than complicated design (but not complex design: ‘complex’ is ‘complicated’’s semantically acceptable cousin; perhaps ‘complex’ is also distantly related to ’simple’?).  The central tenet of my own design (reduce and simplify) is derived from my own experience of using complicated sites: I have an almost physical aversion to complicated architectures, long lists of links, widgets, tiny font sizes, pointless splash screens and any place in which the graphic designer has held sway.  I’m grateful for Stylish.

Good design

On the other hand, I breathe easy in the presence of simple, large design.  It suggests both confidence on the designer’s part and a respect for the reader.  I actually enjoy navigating and reading sites such as Jon Tan’s. Monday by Noon’s redesign is fantastic.  My needs are simple: a few navigation links and large, well-spaced text do it for me.

Yet this simplicity appears to be difficult to attain.  Why do so many apparently talented designers produce work that is so unnecessarily complicated?  There are two main reasons, I think.  The first is the victory of the evil graphic designer, the second the amount of effort it requires to master CSS (and yes, the two are linked).

CSS is simple!

CSS is not complicated per se.  This makes sense to the unitiated:

font-size: large;
font-family: georgia;
color: black;

but it does become complicated when we try and cludge CSS into ever more contorted shapes. Containers, wrappers, multi-column layouts, fantastical grids, multiple background images take a long time to master, and, as is the case when we master any difficult skill, we develop a sense of confidence and control as we become more proficient.  Complicatedness therefore begets more complicatedness: the ‘good’ designers are those who have mastered the most difficult techniques.

What next?

So as I think about a site redesign (and why do I think about a ‘redesign’ before rethinking my content?), I want to simplify further.  My home page has two columns.  Why?  Was it simply because I was reading some gubbins about ‘golden ratios’ as I designed it?  Probably.  The next will have just one column throughout. Reduce and simplify.

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